Do you have moments when you feel old?

I used to say I wouldn’t be old until my doctor was younger than I am. Then my GP was a year younger. So then I decided that I wouldn’t be old until my specialist- I see several- was younger than I am. Then soon after that I saw a specialist who was younger who is a year younger than I am. Now I won’t be old until… It all depends, and is all relative. I have to admit that I felt old for a minute or so, but I realized that you’re only as old as you feel and decided that I didn’t FEEL old.

I feel old when I look at the grey coming in my hair. I get it dyed and that keeps me in denial a little longer.

I’ll feel old when I stop taking chances, don’t want to explore new things, stop exploring my environment, stop catching frogs with my nephew, and begin respecting authority. (They have to earn my trust.)

All the time.

I have a lot of muscle troubles, sometimes it makes me feel old. Although, sometimes I look at the women 20+ years older than me who have more muscle strength and stamina and think, I just am not healthy in that department. Young people have illness also.

My wrinkles on my neck remind me I am aging.

I never have children that I always did want, so my age is on my mind a lot, and how I am aging out of having children.

College students look so very very young.

Yea especially with my bad back.
I’m only 21 but I’ve had back problems for years and it gets mighty painful and makes it hard for me to move about. Some days I’ll be hunched over with my hand on my back for the majority of the time, luckily it doesn’t get that bad too often. It does make me feel like an old lady though..

I have lived a long time but when I wake up every morning, I feel exactly like I always have at 7, 17, 47, 67.

Eating essentially a plant-based diet and sticking to an exercise program has been a cheap fountain of youth for me (and many others).

Two movies worth their weight in statins, zoloft and insulin shots.

Forks Over Knives

Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead

I joke about “being old” all the time, but the truth is, as @gailcalled has just said, I seldom “feel” old. Here, want to feel?

Yes. Everytime I see change on the ground and if it’s less than a quarter, I feel like it’s not worth picking up or when I hear Nirvana on a classic rock station.

When young women hit on me. It feels cool for a minute, then I realize, if a woman this young is hitting on me, she has daddy issues, cause I am old.

I’m closing in on 69, @PaulSadieMartin. Are you serious?

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought When really young ladies hit on me, I find myself wondering if there is such a thing as a great grandfather fetish. But like the old Norse saying, “There might be snow on the chimney but there’s still a fire in the fireplace.” If there is such a fetish, and they are past the age of consent, I might just get lucky.

I feel old when I am in the midst of a batch of teens slurring real words and liberally seasoning them with text speak. I guess they know PAW. So they run on about W/E, being careful not to TDTM. IDK. LOL.

I’m turning 53 in 3 days, and yep, this last year or so I’m feelin’ it more and more.
The endurance is fading. haha
My main complaint, aside from a few odd aches and pains is the weekly, drag the trash can up my 35 foot driveway on a 40% grade, to the edge of the road, moment.
OMG!

It takes me about 3 minutes of dragging, and I have to rest a couple times. lol
This week it is packed, and weighs more than usual. I hate trash day, I feel like I am 80.

Yep. When I run up 3 flights of stairs and run out of breath on the second landing. I have to catch my breath before I go on.

I do yes, but a lot of my friends older than me are fitter and much more healthier than I have ever been. Our bodies are vehicles that take us through life. We best look after them. (This is a do as I say not do as I do statement!!!).

When I wake up crying because I’m in so much pain. When I stupidly sit on the floor, as I’ve always loved to do, and can’t get back up on my own. You’d think I’d stop doing that, wouldn’t you? I never seem to learn, though!

You mean other than those times a teenager refers to me as “Unc”(le)?
Or the fact that every song on my Ipod Touch is now considered “oldies”?
Or that co-workers have developed the annoying habit of adding “Mister” to my name?

No…hadn’t really noticed.

@augustlan Here, have a Happy Brownie and a soak in the hot tub, I’ll fix you up so you will feel no pain. :-P

I kinda/sorta deleted Facebook because it makes me feel old.

Here’s an interesting article about aging and attitude from the 12/19/201 NYT.

No surprises but more confirmation about negative and positie stereotyping. A few excerpts.

“When stereotypes are negative — when seniors are convinced becoming old means becoming useless, helpless or devalued — they are less likely to seek preventive medical care and die earlier, and more likely to suffer memory loss and poor physical functioning, a growing body of research shows.

When stereotypes are positive — when older adults view age as a time of wisdom, self-realization and satisfaction — results point in the other direction, toward a higher level of functioning. The latest report, in The Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests that seniors with this positive bias are 44 percent more likely to fully recover from a bout of disability.”

@bucko: Is “kinda/sorta” doing something different from actually doing it?

@gailcalled You just posted something that didn’t even require an actual thought.

Are you with the terminology police?

I wish I was with the Terminal Police, now that you’ve given me the idea. And a smashing idea it is, too, if taken the right way. I don’t want to work security in an airport, or a bus or train station, that is.

It would be especially fine if I could solicit my own “clients”. I even have the wardrobe, and an old manual weed-whacker that could pass for a scythe (and is way easier to carry, too).

I’m continually surprised at the fact that my future children will give me blank looks when I say anything about cassette tapes, a VCR, or Hannah Montana. I’m shocked that today’s young children don’t know how a pencil and a cassette tape are connected.

@gailcalled . I know exactly what you mean about springing out of bed in the morning and feeling as young as ever. At the age of 56, however, I do find that prolonged stamina becomes a problem. Not that many years ago, I could spring-clean my entire condo (wash the windows, launder and iron the curtains, clean the rugs and upholstery, etc.) by doing an all-out push for a couple of days. Now, I need to spread the work over more time. I’m still a sprinter, but I’m not so much of a marathoner anymore.

You’re so right about avoiding negative thoughts. It’s a really bad idea to misplace the car keys and call it a “senior moment.” Everyone, at every age, is sometimes forgetful. The world’s healthiest, youngest person will lose his sunglasses or drop an appointment. It’s very self-defeating to start attributing those episodes to getting older.

The other day, my 40 year old cousin, who is a college professor posted on FB that his students (who are in their early 20’s) had never heard the song Do They Know It’s Christmas and had never heard of band aid, or farm aid. Just because they weren’t born when the song was made is not a very good excuse for that kind of ignorance, especially in the Youtube, media driven world of today.

When I was in my early 20’s (in the early 1980’s) and even much younger than that, I certainly knew who the previous generation’s musical personalities were, even if they weren’t particularly my taste at the time (some of whom I’ve grown to love in my adulthood) such as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holliday, Dave Brubeck, Lionel Hampton, Benny Goodman etc. Those folks certainly weren’t from my generation, but I sure knew who they were. And we didn’t have itunes and youtube back then.

I just don’t get it, especially because these were college students.

@Kardamom Do you really think it’s ignorant those students aren’t aware of BandAid? I would think that since the present is so media driven it would be more unlikely for this generation to be unfamiliar with certain events. Unless someone was purposely looking for something, why would they be aware of BandAid?

Now, compare that to our adolescence (or younger years). We had the artists you mentioned shoved down our throats (not in a negative way) because there were so few media outlets.

Even at that, I’m aware of Band Aid and Farm Aid, but I’d be challenged to find anyone I know who grew up then to recall those events. Quite likely because those events weren’t something everybody was particularly interested in.

@SABOTEUR Yes, I do think it’s ignorant. The kids of today have every type of media at their hands and beck and call, TV, books, internet, history classes, parents, grandparents et al. So yes, I do think they’re ignorant. People (even young people) do not need to have information shoved down their throats to be able to know about our history.

I never had Louis Armstrong or any of the others I mentioned, shoved down my throat. It was simply common knowledge, easily acquired and not marred by spending hours online playing World or Warcraft of watching Jersey Shores.

@SABOTEUR I remember all of those things from the 80’s like band aid and farm aid. Was John Cougar Mellencamp’s song associated with Farm aid. I think it was called Rain On The Scarecrow.

Well, the only reason I recall those events is because I like rock ‘n roll. As I recall, there were few R&B or soul acts associated with those events, so many people I know may have paid them little attention.

Regardless…there’s a TON of information online. Why any of today’s youth…ignorant or otherwise…would be interested in those isolated events is beyond my comprehension.

Please excuse my ignorance.

Hearing songs from my youth makes me feel younger. Going to the doctor is what makes me feel old.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room But Elephants have a long lifespan. Getting a little long in the tusk ey” lol

Oh, yes. I have moments when I am old. But not yet as old as I’m going to get.

And of course I still have my 8-year-old inside me, and my 15-year-old, my 29-year-old…gets crowded in there sometimes.

Oh, look, I’m older now than I was when I started writing this post.