At what age did you first feel "old"?

I’m feelin’ pretty young still…frat party right now woo….

Probably when I was 28, just last year.
I was at a high school doing some grad school work, and realized that to these kids I was a grownup. I thought their fashions and behavior were ridiculous. Sigh. In my head I’m still a very cool 17 year old…

I’ve always felt old, for some reason. A lot of people I know describe me as an 80 year old trapped in a young man’s body. I won’t claim to have the wisdom or knowledge of somebody who’s lived a full life, but I certainly feel like I can relate to them more than my own generation. I’m much more comfortable chatting with folks who are 20–40 years older than me. I don’t find the idea of youth to be attractive, rather quite naive and upsetting.

To me, being a young man is like looking at an older Jelly’s lurve score and wishing you had that number– age is like an indication of how mature or smart you are, and the younger you are, the less people will take you seriously.

When I didn’t quite understand the slang as much anymore…maybe 25 or so? And I work with a lot of young people I’m only 33, but I work with a lot of teenagers and early 20s and they think I’m old. One told me the other day she’d rather die than be 28. Guess that is the cut off for her.

43 when my eyesight started failing.

At age 26 when I realized I was working with a guy who was born in 1993. I was graduating from elementary school when he was born.

The first time I had a doctor younger than me was tough too.

I’m almost 65 and I just re-injured my knee. So I can’t run, I can walk, but if I come down wrong it really hurts. And I am not good at pain.

This is making me feel very old. I hope it gets better soon.

Other than that, I am still a kid, at heart at least!

Oh another thing that makes me feel old is seeing kids I used to baby sit that are like in college or one is married and has a kid. Makes me feel ancient! I used to fix them lunch and take them swimming and they are now old enough to have kids! I hate it!

@Judi Me too.

I think I feltold when I got married. Fell into an uncomfortable routine an lost sight of myself and my direction. Once out of the marriage and back on the road to myself I feel young again. I blame myself for loosing sight of what was important and for giving up on myself. Age has nothing to do with feeling old though.

Or, not being able to party hard like I use to. I use to be able to salsa dance all night for three nights in a row. Now a days I’m lucky if I can hang till midnight. I can’t handle my liquor anymore either.

Funny, but with the current progress in medicine it’s too early to feel old before you turn 100 years old.

I started feeling old when I was a junior in high school…I’ve always been one of those “get off my lawn, you damn hooligans!” kind of people.

The fist time that I had an affair with an ex girlfriend’s mother. I spent several years after that only dating much older women. (I had recently read Stephen Vizinczey’s “In Praise of Older Women at the time.)

Actually, I just started feeling old now after reading all of these comments and thinking – uh, they’re me. Sob.

When I turned 22 I cried because I realized there were no age milestones to look forward to anyone. Since then I’ve begun to realize how much better life can be after 25.

50 going on 30.

I always felt older than I was, and it wasn’t until I turned 30 that I felt my actual age had caught up to my brain and stage of life. I had done everything so young, I was always the ‘baby’ in the situation. Got married at 19, bought my first house at 21, etc… Shortly after my age caught up to my life, I got fibromyalgia. I’ve never really felt young again. :(

@augustlan When I hear stories like that it makes me want to drop everything boring that I do and only do things that really matter to me…but not enough to actually do it.

I’ve always felt “old”; even as a second-grader, my teacher described me as an “old soul”.

I’m the sort that doesn’t really identify with others my age. (I don’t really care about my nails or acrylics, hair, makeup (enough to look awake, :D), etc.) And I never was jealous of cheerleaders, mainly because I knew some of them and they were so dumb. (No offense to any smart cheerleaders out there.)

So I would venture to say, I’ve always felt “old”. Although I’m technologically advanced (well…kind of), I’m also interested in things that women (and men) have done for hundreds of years: cooking, baking (from scratch), knitting, spinning, needlework, sewing, carving wood, building things, etc.

Although I won’t give up my jeans. :D

Depends, but most of the time it’s those moments where you meet younger people and hear something new from them. As opposed to most of the older people assuming they know more then the younger ones. Realising they will eventually surpass you.

I work in the creative realm (music, photography, video) and when I see people who are in the game longer come with something “new” sometimes I laugh. But then again, people that are younger then me can do stuff I’d probably never imagine. You have to respect that.

Just keep in touch with the elder, younger, and your own peer group and you’ll feel up to date.

I’ve never felt young, but the first time I had a moment that made me stop and actually say “Oh my God, I’m so old…” was when I was 18 and I saw my oldest nephew behind the wheel of a car for the first time.

23

“Ah but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now” (Bob Dylan)

Oh, @DrasticDreamer, you are not the first. Miss Tink had the same effect on me: see here. (She failed to recognize the epic Killer Tofu reference to Doug).

I can’t see how anyone would not think old and not beautiful, maybe an old soul-all the better.

Oh, and the moment my elder brother became a dad (thus I became an uncle) was weird.

At the time (over a year ago) I was 22, he was 26. Since I’m still a student, and go out to parties etc. en he has an office job, wife, kid, house, 2 cars… that did made me think about my age.

I still consider myself young and don’t see myself in a similar position as my brother within 4 years.
But at the same time I feel a certain responsibility towards my little niece; that I should take care of certain things more properly. Being able to provide for her in case something happens to my brother’s new family. (as a backup)

The very first time was probably when I heard one of my songs on the oldies station. Subsequent to that I felt old when I had my youngest son and had to have an amnio because of “advanced maternal age”, when I got a prescription for bi-focals, and when I found out a torn rotator cuff is actually a pretty common injury in people past a certain age.

Seeing the sign at the cornershop recently that said they wouldn’t sell cigarettes to anyone who wasn’t born on that day in 1991.

I was a junior in college in 1991.

One event that brought the reality if my true age to light was a few years back when I noticed that I was reacting differently to the young athletes and movie/rock stars… instead of thinking “Oooh, he’s HOT!”, I thought, “Awww, he seems like a nice kid.” And seeing kids in bars and clubs that look like my son or his friends gets me – they can’t be old enough to drink!

@hearkat lol4rl! Lurve!

In the same vein as @SuperMouse‘s answer, it always makes me feel old when Nick at Nite or whatever adds a show that I used to watch to their lineup.

When I was teaching a writing class in the late 1980s and the students wrote a message on the blackboard to me and signed it, “The Motley Crue.” I told them they had misspelled “crew,” and had to have the reference explained to me!

I inspired this question!
Sorry if I made you guys feel old, I guess I’m just a child…well I am but you get the point…

Aw Tink – you’re such a baby! (But we love you anyway!)

Thanks ^_^

@DrasticDreamer I’ve never had anything noticeable make me feel old before Tink didn’t know who Sarah McLachlan was. And I’m pretty young (I think you’re only a year older than me!)
Sometimes I catch my views with parenting becoming quite conservative. Doesn’t make me feel old, but it feels…different.

Every time I think I feel “old,” something happens a few months or a few years later that makes me think, “OK, now I’m really, actually old. I was wrong before.”

The other day, I saw Ronald Reagan referred to as “one of those Presidents from the nineteen-hundreds.” OMG I felt old.

I am 37.

When I turned 41 and I had to cut back my running distances because my knees aren’t as strong as they used to be, that made me feel old and discouraged.

@knitfroggy I hear ya! I babysat these siblings when I was in high school… the little girl used to curl up and go to sleep during the 5 minute drive home from pre-school. I’m facebook friends with her now, and I constantly want to tell her she’s not allowed out of the house dressed like that (seriously, she’s gorgeous and voluptuous and should wear more clothes) and I gave her some advice on her freshman year of college. Where did the time go?!?!

On the other hand, my grand kids seem to have given me my youth back! :-)

The age I am now. 37. Feels like my body is already falling apart from playing sports for so many years. Then again in 10 years from now, I’m sure I’ll look back and think how feeling old at 37 sounds ridiculous.

I love Sarah McLachlan, I think a lot of people don’t know who she is though. Probably in my late 30’s I started to feel old. College age people look soooo young to me lol! Also, as some of you know I have fertility problems and my hormones are officially at the edge of normal, about to move towards not being able to even try anymore if I wanted to. I have gone through periods even in my 20’s when my body felt old when I had some chronic health problems, but I did not feel mentally old. Living in FL is great if you want to feel young, because so many people there are over 65 and having FUN in their retirement.

When I first discovered they were studying the Vietnam war in school, and the kids had never heard of it before.

When my hair started falling out at age 19. My friends would introduce me to new people my age and they’d ask, “who’s the Narc?”. Tragic. I’ve been shaving my head for about 10 or 12 years now, and it’s helped me feel younger.

@daloon wow, I find that hard to beleive. (I was born in 86, live in europe and assume everybody knows about it)

@Inofaith Yeah. It is scary how geographically, historically, and mathematically illiterate so many American kids are. Or it seems scary. I don’t really know—perhaps there was always a portion of the population that didn’t pick up much in school. It’s just that we focus on the ones who don’t know stuff instead of those who do.

In any case, it’s weird to have events I grew up with now being studied in school as history.

When my great grandson was born, it struck home. when my son told me that age 66 is half of 132, it struck home. when my wife said that its time i let the younger officers take over, it struck home. when i had my 13th surgery, it struck home. when i received a mortgage paid in full notice, it struck home. when i slept this morning to 8 am, rather than 430 am, it struck home. when i was told i needed eye glasses and hearing aids, it struck home. the list just seems to be endless as i grow older. but, one thing that has not changed and that is i am still young at heart.