What was the first birthday that really made you feel old?

My 30th shook me pretty hard, I bawled.

Happy Birthday to you! Just enjoy having a young, pain-free body as long as you can.

I think 40 because I felt the way I was going I would never make it to 40.

My 30th was the most traumatic.

My 50th.
Not crazy about it at all.
But a few minutes later I was okay with it.

22, when I moved 3000 miles away from my family. Then 34 when I became a parent. Then 45 when I was diagnosed with cancer and wasn’t sure I would see 46. Then 54 when my daughter invited me to her place for dinner. Then 61 when I stopped having any contact with my family.

It goes on, priorities change , “old” beats “dead”.

I’m in my mid-60s and I still don’t feel old. I don’t move as fast as I used to, but that is mechanical, not psychological.

When I think of myself in the proverbial mind’s eye, I wee myself in my 30s, not my 60s.

We all start to wee ourselves, when we get older.
But 30, that’s a bit young.
~

Thirty was a milestone for me, for sure, but at least not a headstone. I thought it was old. But actually I felt a bigger chill at twenty than at thirty. Twenty felt like a leap out of safe harbor and into the unknown.

Wish I had understood at the time how young forty still was. Things didn’t sag too badly yet, and my glasses prescription was weak, the chronic pain was still mild, and I could walk a good distance. Now I think of fifty and sixty as still young.

Happy birthday, youngster, and many more.

55. I was no longer in my early fifties, I was just fucking old.

63 was even worse

Hey kid, get off of my lawn but have a Happy Birthday!

Not so much a birthday, but more related to health is what made me feel old the first time. That was my late 20’s. Then again when pregnancies failed, I felt the fertility clock ticking.

In regards to a birthday I would say 51. It was being in my 50’s, not turning 50.

I hear people say all the time they still feel or imagine themselves as 20 inside of their minds, and I don’t feel that way at all.

Edit: another health thing more recently is never completely recovering from an illness, I still hold out hope, some occlusion in my right main artery to my heart, below normal kidney function on and off. I feel closer to death in my 50’s.

Ask me again in a few months

None yet, but I turn 50 in October, so I’ll let ya know.

25. I felt like I was no longer a “young adult”. I was an adult adult. Like I could no longer be excused for stupid stuff. 40 though, that hit me very hard!

I’m always interested when people say they stopped feeling like a kid or like a young person.

I’ve felt like an adult since I was ten or eleven and yet sometimes feel more like a kid now than I ever did.

@cookieman I was told by many people throughout my adolescence that I was “more mature like an adult.” Funny thing is at nearly 45 I still feel about 17.

I’d say that it was my 100th, because it was shortly after the untimely death of Disco. ;-(

40 for sure. I honestly felt like my life was over – I no longer mattered or had value. 50 just intensified those feelings. I’m no 64 and still struggle; kind of feel like I’m just passing time til I die.

Healthwise, it was when I was told I had sciatica. I was like, “Wha-a-a-?? That’s for OLD people!”

@canidmajor Just wanted to throw you a {{huggg}}

Mimi, your “feeling old” birthday is about 50 years from now.

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@Brian1946 I cried hearing about you witnessing Disco’s death :’(

There has been no birthday that made me feel old. Birthday is just an excuse for me to have fun with my loved one :)

But if you talked about a point in life that made me feel old… Well I think it was some time after I got my job, some time between 2017 and 2018. It was a surreal feeling, as if I hadn’t grown up at all. I just kind of woke up one day and the next thing I knew I was an adult. I was still enjoying a life of fun and little responsibility, and then the next thing I knew, I was standing in front of a class, with people who were bigger than me and were calling me “teacher” and were looking at me waiting for a direction, and I was expected to put on a tough demeanor in order to get them to follow me. It was surreal, and scary. Sometimes I had a feeling that I wasn’t cut out for adult life, I was just a child pretending to be an adult in order to impress other children, and sooner or later people would find out and kick me out of my job…

I’m used to it by now. But it was a messy time.

@cookieman In many ways that is true for me too. I feel much more adventurous and free now than when I was a child.

I don’t celebrate birthdays, but I remember realizing I wasn’t young when I was 27. I had torn my knee at work, and was on light duty for a while.

20. I turn 21 in a few months. With all the shit I’ve been through in my life I feel like I should be much older.

Happy belated birthday!

There are life changes, events and realizations that made me feel old. Birthdays just aren’t one of them.

I find the cultural fixation on birthdays ending in zero kind of arbitrary and intriguing.

I wonder if the Na’vi in Avatar place significance on their 16th, 24th, 32th…birthdays.

I was really surprised when I turned 50 and I didn’t feel old. Then every 10 years after that, same thing. Finally around 75 I started to notice “old” things going on.

@Mimishu1995

”@Brian1946 I cried hearing about you witnessing Disco’s death :’(”

Thanks **sob** **choke**

Seeing the wanton slaughter of all those poor, defenseless, 7-inch vinyl discs broke my **boo hoo** heart. :P

It was the genocide of a genre. ;(

@smudges I have found that there are a lot of advantages to being this age. I can be invisible or not, as I choose. I know longer feel compelled to be “attractive” by the standards that someone else sets, the freedoms to do a lot more stuff that I want to do, stuff like that. Yeah, stuff hurts, but it hurt long before aging.
I think of it as leveling up, and the release from the expectations of others is really lovely. :-)

“No” longer feel…
My autocorrect, along with an excessive love for apostrophes, hates the word “no”. Ugh.

@JLeslie: A second chance at childhood in a way.

I joined the Army when I was 26. In basic training the other trainees in my company were 18 years old and they referred to me as, “The old man”. HA!

Happy to report NONE OF THEM.

I cherish each and every one. Similarly cherish each and every day.

None of them make me feel old. While each of they may have significance to where I am in my life at that time, I don’t get a sense of old.
Maybe 100 will make me feel old. I will let you know after I recover from that partay!

@Forever_Free I like the cut of your jib!

@janbb Thank you kindly. My jib is set for speed

@Forever_Free Wheee!

@cookieman When I was young many people would tell me to loosen up, I had no idea what they meant.

All around me are people who feel able to have fun every day and be more indulgent in pursuing what they want to do. That’s what you get when you retire if you are lucky. I still work, but just part time, and every day I have activities available to me that I want to do. I think opportunity matters just as much as attitude.

Not just where I live, but also having the opportunity to travel or participate in something often takes money. Some things are free that can quench a spontaneous appetite, but many things in life aren’t.

Plus, I think we become more fearless about exploring as we age.

Never felt old but older then others around me.
Felt I was getting old, but realized those were the times when I was recovering from a bike acident or overworking.

I met a lady who told me tht her mother sitting in the car outside looked about 40–60 years of age but infact was 93 years old.

That lady told me that her mother worked on her own farm everyday keeping in shpae and had never been sick sicnce she looks after herself with healthy food, lifestyle, freah air and loads of opportunities to work those muscles. She didn’t need a Gym pass either.
So keeping up physcally helped her a lot and she saw no reason for entering into a seniors home in her future.
Its all commonsense,look oneself as best as one can as accidents and illinness do happen but work around it if you can to keep active, and strong.

About age 70 I began to notice there were things I simply could no longer do. I also came to realize that when you die in your 60s people say you died too young but in your 70s they say he/she lived a long life It’s hard when you finally come to the conclusion that things you used to do effortlessly are no longer effortless and they won’t be coming back. None of the other birthdays had any affect on me, 70 did.

I turned 50 this year and I still don’t feel old. I definitely look older and my body doesn’t move as fast as it once did, but my mind still feels young. I’m one of the very few of my friends who doesn’t have grandchildren yet. When or if that day comes I might feel old then.

@Jaxk I turned 70 last January. Can’t say that I didn’t see it coming. Still wasn’t totally prepared mentally. I tell myself that its natural and I’m lucky to be 70 and be as physically fit and healthy as I am. Luck and hard work and making good choices like maintaining regular and vigorous physical training (since my 20’s) and doing the right things (eating a healthy diet, getting good rest, no tobacco, alcohol or other recreational drugs). What I miss most is the high lever of physical fitness I once had. Sad to watch it slowly but surely slip away (I’ve kept an exercise journal with ever workout and race that I’ve done since 1983). Strength slips through your finger like holding water in your cupped hands. At some point there will be just that little pocket in the palm to hang onto and to cherish. That too will be gone at some point.
Good health!
Stay strong!