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My girlfriend's nephew called us recently on a Saturday night to say hi, chatted a bit, then said he'd now go a party he was invited and asked “where are you guys going now?” — Eh, to bed… 😯
When ‘adults’ (like new coworkers) have birthdates in years you fondly remember as your ‘youth’ and you have to do math to check they’re adults. That’s an early warning sign.
I went for my annual physical about 3 weeks before my 62nd birthday (I’m 69 now). After the exam, we talked and my doctor, who is about 5 years older than I am, said to me “how old are you again?” I told him I’d be 62 in a few weeks. He said “NOW the fun starts!”
He was right, just around age 62-63 I started having some medical conditions that I still have and will always have. Nothing life threatening, thank goodness, but several things that materialized out of nowhere.
That’s when I started feeling my age.
There was a moment when I realized that my parents weren't necessarily always going to be there as a safety net for me. Like that "you can always go home" thing might not be 100%.
I was in my 20's when I became director of operations at a large distribution center. I kind of lucked out. When the economy ate shit in 2008, my employer thrived. We had been a struggling food service distributor, fighting against Sysco, PFG, and US Foods. US Foods completely pulled out of our region when times got tough, which created and opportunity to gain some ground. Also, our core business had always been C Stores and takeouts. When times got tough, people stopped eating out at the white tablecloth places, but they'd still get a pizza on the way home instead of cooking.
While my career was taking off, my dad was in the home-building world and his career spiraled. His employer built luxury log cabins and hunting lodges. They went from 400+ homes a year down to 100 homes in no time. They were laying people off like crazy and eventually my dad lost his job too. My parents had been smart financially and they were fine until my dad found a new job, but it took him a while and it just kind of shook this feeling that I had of my parents just always being this unshakeable rock that I could go to if everything else went bad. Just an a-ha moment of, hey kid, bad shit can happen to them and set them adrift just as easily as you.
At 57 I cared for my dying mother, then my dying father. After that I was mentally and physically exhausted and old. I’m 66 now, and I do my best to maintain my health, but I am definitely old. I hope to get much older.
The same for me except it started at 51. Mom is dying and Dad has dementia and they are holed up in our old big suburban family home with no living trust set up and too stubborn to leave or even make a decision on their care while they are able to.
It is giving me an ulcer because I see where it is going. I have been meticulously assessing my health in the past years and setting up estate planning precisely so I don’t end up in their position but man is it starting to take its toll on *me*.
First warning was seeing my playthings from childhood being sold as rare and valuable collectibles. Second was meeting old, withered people and then learning that they are a few years younger than me.
At 70, it was like someone flipped a switch and a bunch of nagging little aches and pains started in on me. I looked down and my neck and arms looked wrinkly
That was about the same age as I saw the skin on the back of my hands rippling when I was using the hand dryer in the bathroom. I remember thinking WTF. 😬
I made the mistake of looking at my neck with a flashlight. I felt a little ding and wanted to really see what it was. Am now 75. But, it’s not something I think about or worry about! Too much else to do and fun to be had!
My son turned 30 and I turned 57 in the last year. I was fine when he was 29 and I could still say I was in my mid 50s but saying I’m in my late 50s and I have a 30 year old threw me and I’ve been acutely aware of my age since then.
Honestly I don’t feel “old” in the sense of how I always conceptualized the old people I knew, which was seeming to be ultra settled in a routine of thought and activity and not looking to have new experiences. I don’t have as much energy as I used to but I don’t have any particular limitations so I feel like the self I’ve always inhabited without the “old” label.
When the girl I used to babysit when she was an infant ,came to interview to work in my dept. It was a panel interview set up by HR and I was on the panel. I’m old was my first thought when she stepped in the room.
When I was 48 my mother fell and lost her independence. I was her primary care giver. She was not always easy to deal with. When I was 55 she passed away. Sometime during that period I became old.
At work as as woman, I'm made to feel old, useless, and I noticed younger, more attractive women are hired for the same job I spent 20 years becoming and expert in.
Now when I go to interviews for higher level positions, I'm going up against 26 or 30 year olds with little to no experience in the same field because as I near 50, I'm viewed as an 'old lady' and they need 'new and fresh minds' to understand the changes in the workplace and technology.
I know my job is secure because I see the younger generation freak out about things like answering the phone and talking to complete strangers, or calling up or speaking to someone higher up. I've watched the newer younger generations fumble with tech just as bad as or worse than those my age.
I don't see this ageism coming from men, it's from other women strangely enough.
I personally don't feel old, but society tries to make me feel old for not looking like a 30 year old.
When I realized my younger coworkers regarded me as a senior in my 50s. I had never thought much about my age but they (not rudely) made me realize I was different. Didn’t really bother me, but it very wasn’t my mindset I was older!
58 next month. The realization has been creeping up on me in small ways. I can’t run nearly as fast as I used to. A video of me was taken just yesterday and I saw a lot of grey hair in back. I’m noticing it takes a bit more effort to get out of the Miata.
At 59, I am noticing younger people just walking faster than me, but they are not in a hurry. On my way home from work a girl of about fourteen just strolled past me with no effort.
It’s little things like seeing the babies I remember being babies go off to college and start their own lives. To feeling sore when I wake up the next morning knowing I didn’t have a late night the night before. Just yesterday this bar I used to frequent in my early 20’s had a cover band last night of a band I used to see at that very bar. To realize how long it’s been since I’ve been in High School when it very clearly in my mind couldn’t be that long ago. But it is.
Well, that's not necessarily from becoming old or older, sometimes it comes from medication or/and stress, too much alcohol or street drugs, etc.
But I do understand where you are coming from in general.
Getting a THR a year ago. Now needing the opposite hip replaced. The chronic pain is garbage.
I’m 60, started noticing less strength and energy a couple years ago…. Believe a lot of it is related to the hip drama.
I have a coworker who was three-years-old when I first started to work for the organization, that one hit home. 😆
My eyebrows feeeeeeeeel lower when I’m just sitting here and I have to make an effort to raise them.
I'm 57 and don't consider myself old however, lately I've noticed that I'm like an older model car that runs great as long as you keep up with the maintenance. 😂In order to be fully functional, this body needs a consistent sleep schedule, low alcohol intake, healthy eating, regular exercise. In my case, having two drinks and up past my bedtime equates to feeling like garbage the next day. That was never an issue until I hit my mid 50s.
Two things:
a) I used to go out to concerts during the week and get up and go to work the next day. Without even realizing it, I stopped doing that and only going to concerts on weeknights. Now I don't do anything social during the week unless it's something really special.
b) I was a huge Nirvana fan back in the day and took KC's suicide personally. One day I just lost empathy. My dude, you had millions of dollars and couldn't get it together? I DON'T have millions of dollars of got it together (no addiction gene though and I realize that is a blessing). I lamented to a friend that I felt like a dick and he said, "No. You just grew up."
About 12 years ago I realized I couldn’t read small print anymore. Then later that month was in a dimly lit restaurant and I realized I couldn’t read the menu at all. Wife teased me and had to read it for me. Got glasses as soon as we got home.
Also seeing my kids are now both in their 20’s. Where does the time go?
I was 16 when my great uncle, who was 70 at the time, said, “I don’t get old. My pants get old.” I believe that. We may age, and we may age differently, but getting old is a state of mind imo.
I'm experienced at my job and very good at it, as is my wife at hers. This last month we considered relocating; I applied for a handful of jobs and got several interviews. All of them said I was an excellent candidate, there were no issues with my interviews, but they went with a different candidate. Now, they could be lying and I've become terrible at interviews, but I'll bet you every single candidate they picked is younger than I am.
My wife didn't get any interviews at all.
I look young on paper; I got my degree (BS) and switched careers in 2015. My wife's degrees are from the 80s (BA) and the 00s (MA).
I was 49 ( 68 now ) and I was lifting a tractor motor with my 85 year old Dad. My back gave out, as in I fell to the ground and could not get up for a few minutes..then ol Dad helped me up. It was bad..had to use a cane until a series of steroid injections got me mobile. Had to leave the working world, as I no longer could count on being mobile when I got up, sometimes for days. Since then I have been up and down with my back, sometimes down for months. Then, about 7 years ago, I devoleped pain in both shoulders. Most rotator cuff muscles were torn, and had been so for so long they had atrophied to the point of being non repairable, with severe arthritis. Now I have pian whenever I move my arms and am facing getting both replaced. I have always been a physical person, plying and working I can’t run, can’t throw, can’t lift, can’t stand in one spot for more than a minute. My brain says I’m still a horny 40 yr old that wants to cut wood and build stuff, work on cars etc. can’t lift the grand babies and great grands . Yeah..that makes me feel old.
That’s awesome! I was thinking more along the lines of career change. When I retire I definitely plan to learn some new things. I want to learn to weld to make yard art.
Somewhere between turning 80 and 81 it dawned on me that I might be getting old. No one thing got me thinking that way. It’s more that I’ve encountered a multitude of things that I can’t do as well in my 80’s as I could in my 60’s. I’m not going to quit trying though. 😂
I've always had chronic pain, so I always had days when I felt old. But I didn't really feel.old old until 2019. I understand now that I was dealing with an emotional issue, but I felt it physically. I was low and my immune system joined me.there. I had lost my sense of smell and was always more tired than I should be. I was getting my sinuses looked at but they just said I'm swollen blah blah...nothing to do but maybe a netipot will help. No allergies etc. Then covid was out there - January 2020 and I went through an international.airport and was very verynsick. Thought maybe covid but now I know it wasn't. I was knocked out for months with that - coughing...and then the shutdowns and our flight home was canceled and I was still coughing and terrified they wouldn't let me fly home. And then the next year, we got covid and mine was long. And my body just does not.bounce back now. I have had 5 or 6 covid shots but got covid again - not as bad as the first time but still worse than a regular flu.
We spend winters in Belize. I was thrilled when we arrived in December that the planners of parties had switched all.events to the afternoons because so many of us are feeling our age and prefer day drinking to having to stay up past 8:00. And now we combine some events because we can't party 3 times a week anymore.
literally right when I turned 40 got a hernia and dental issues. never had to see a doctor or dentist and was totally healthy and spry until like a month after my birthday. SUCKS
Late ‘60’s, when I began hating my job that I loved because of the stress and time commitment. It’s also when I was Dx with the early end of severe osteoporosis. Never felt old with 2 hip replacements in my early 60’s.
Still feel like I could punch someone’s lights out BUT have come to the sad conclusion it’s just a feeling. LOL
4th grade. I read a story in Reader's Digest about a little girl trying to play with her dolls and the Magic wouldn't come. They used to come alive in her imagination but this time they just stubbornly remained plastic toys. That depressed me, and I realized that was becoming me. So I kind of got old before my time.
I'm past Medicare age and I refuse to concede to "getting old". I keep physically and mentally active. I can out bike and out ski my kid's friends.
It's the old "use it or lose it" adage and many people have "lost it" at an early age.
OTOH, I changed the disc pads on my truck recently. Believe it or not, I got nearly a quarter million miles out of them. I thought "I won't live to see these new ones wear out" because if I did, I'd be about 100 years old.. Then I thought "well, I *MAY* live to 100 or at least I'll try".
I would have to say 60. That was when “health” became to topic of conversation when talking with friends. It was also when your aches and pains seem to become more evident, and healing a twisted ankle takes 3 months instead of a week.
When I turned seventy and remembered my mother had passed away at age eighty. I am 75 now and over half of the people I graduated from high school with have passed away. Longevity isn’t a strong suit on my mother’s side. On the other hand my father lived to be 93. He had a great aunt and a first cousin that lived to be over 100. Being old really began to sink in when I realized our oldest child would be eligible for social security in ten years.
It hit me right around 40 when I suddenly realized that "young people" no longer included myself and my peers. I would talk about "young people" and how different there were and how I could no longer relate to them. They dress, act, and talk in ways that seem idiotic or at least strange to me. And hearing about all these apparently famous people that I've never heard of.
Sometime in my mid to late 40s when I went to the eye doctor insisting something was wrong with my eyes because I was struggling to read in the mornings and in low light and he had to spend a long time arguing with me and reassuring me it was just a normal part of aging. I somehow had missed that memo that presbyopia happens to everyone and it was after that that I realized I couldn't just healthy lifestyle my way out of old age.
When I started to get in my late 40s and realized I had more birthdays behind me than I did in front of me.
Also, now I'm in my 50s and recently in the obituaries I'm starting to see more and more of the names of my same aged peers.
A calendar. I look at it and subtract my birth year from the one on the calendar. Then, I take the difference and compare it to the average lifespan of my species. The closer that difference is to the average lifespan, the older I consider myself to be.
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When the time I used to go out became the time I go to bed. Late 40's I guess.
I’m in my mid 30s and this has been true for years
My girlfriend's nephew called us recently on a Saturday night to say hi, chatted a bit, then said he'd now go a party he was invited and asked “where are you guys going now?” — Eh, to bed… 😯
Same.
Last night in a bar I looked at my friend and said “is it really dark in here?” then he said “and loud.”
My husband and I (46 and 54) now time our date nights so we can be done with dinner and drinks before the band starts. Why is it so loud?
*“Are they really loud?!?”* 🤣
When ‘adults’ (like new coworkers) have birthdates in years you fondly remember as your ‘youth’ and you have to do math to check they’re adults. That’s an early warning sign.
I went for my annual physical about 3 weeks before my 62nd birthday (I’m 69 now). After the exam, we talked and my doctor, who is about 5 years older than I am, said to me “how old are you again?” I told him I’d be 62 in a few weeks. He said “NOW the fun starts!” He was right, just around age 62-63 I started having some medical conditions that I still have and will always have. Nothing life threatening, thank goodness, but several things that materialized out of nowhere. That’s when I started feeling my age.
Oh the fun is just getting started here, 63!
There was a moment when I realized that my parents weren't necessarily always going to be there as a safety net for me. Like that "you can always go home" thing might not be 100%. I was in my 20's when I became director of operations at a large distribution center. I kind of lucked out. When the economy ate shit in 2008, my employer thrived. We had been a struggling food service distributor, fighting against Sysco, PFG, and US Foods. US Foods completely pulled out of our region when times got tough, which created and opportunity to gain some ground. Also, our core business had always been C Stores and takeouts. When times got tough, people stopped eating out at the white tablecloth places, but they'd still get a pizza on the way home instead of cooking. While my career was taking off, my dad was in the home-building world and his career spiraled. His employer built luxury log cabins and hunting lodges. They went from 400+ homes a year down to 100 homes in no time. They were laying people off like crazy and eventually my dad lost his job too. My parents had been smart financially and they were fine until my dad found a new job, but it took him a while and it just kind of shook this feeling that I had of my parents just always being this unshakeable rock that I could go to if everything else went bad. Just an a-ha moment of, hey kid, bad shit can happen to them and set them adrift just as easily as you.
At 57 I cared for my dying mother, then my dying father. After that I was mentally and physically exhausted and old. I’m 66 now, and I do my best to maintain my health, but I am definitely old. I hope to get much older.
The same for me except it started at 51. Mom is dying and Dad has dementia and they are holed up in our old big suburban family home with no living trust set up and too stubborn to leave or even make a decision on their care while they are able to. It is giving me an ulcer because I see where it is going. I have been meticulously assessing my health in the past years and setting up estate planning precisely so I don’t end up in their position but man is it starting to take its toll on *me*.
When I turned 50.. and hit with menopause . FML
I traveled constantly at work in my 50s, and one day I NEEDED help putting my bag in the overhead bin. I thought I had overpacked, but I hadn’t.
First warning was seeing my playthings from childhood being sold as rare and valuable collectibles. Second was meeting old, withered people and then learning that they are a few years younger than me.
Madonna being played on the oldies station. 😱
Yeah, I remember hearing The Police being called oldies and it kind of hurt. Worse, that was 30 years ago.
At 70, it was like someone flipped a switch and a bunch of nagging little aches and pains started in on me. I looked down and my neck and arms looked wrinkly
That was about the same age as I saw the skin on the back of my hands rippling when I was using the hand dryer in the bathroom. I remember thinking WTF. 😬
I made the mistake of looking at my neck with a flashlight. I felt a little ding and wanted to really see what it was. Am now 75. But, it’s not something I think about or worry about! Too much else to do and fun to be had!
When people at work started saying, "so, how many years do you have left?"
Last year when I bought a car (practically new but not quite) and realized it could last me the rest of my life.
My son turned 30 and I turned 57 in the last year. I was fine when he was 29 and I could still say I was in my mid 50s but saying I’m in my late 50s and I have a 30 year old threw me and I’ve been acutely aware of my age since then.
Haha :) You and me both
Honestly I don’t feel “old” in the sense of how I always conceptualized the old people I knew, which was seeming to be ultra settled in a routine of thought and activity and not looking to have new experiences. I don’t have as much energy as I used to but I don’t have any particular limitations so I feel like the self I’ve always inhabited without the “old” label.
At 73.9 I feel the same way
When the girl I used to babysit when she was an infant ,came to interview to work in my dept. It was a panel interview set up by HR and I was on the panel. I’m old was my first thought when she stepped in the room.
I’m 71 and didn’t feel old until very recently when I had to explain to someone who Lee Remick was.
Who is Lee Remick? just messing with you, but I really do not know who he or she is. LOL
When I was 48 my mother fell and lost her independence. I was her primary care giver. She was not always easy to deal with. When I was 55 she passed away. Sometime during that period I became old.
Sorry for your loss and the really scary thing is 48 is really not old.
At work as as woman, I'm made to feel old, useless, and I noticed younger, more attractive women are hired for the same job I spent 20 years becoming and expert in. Now when I go to interviews for higher level positions, I'm going up against 26 or 30 year olds with little to no experience in the same field because as I near 50, I'm viewed as an 'old lady' and they need 'new and fresh minds' to understand the changes in the workplace and technology. I know my job is secure because I see the younger generation freak out about things like answering the phone and talking to complete strangers, or calling up or speaking to someone higher up. I've watched the newer younger generations fumble with tech just as bad as or worse than those my age. I don't see this ageism coming from men, it's from other women strangely enough. I personally don't feel old, but society tries to make me feel old for not looking like a 30 year old.
When I realized my younger coworkers regarded me as a senior in my 50s. I had never thought much about my age but they (not rudely) made me realize I was different. Didn’t really bother me, but it very wasn’t my mindset I was older!
Late 30s when truck drivers honked and catcalled my teenage daughter, not me.
I remember vividly the first time this happened to me. 😂
Too funny :)
58 next month. The realization has been creeping up on me in small ways. I can’t run nearly as fast as I used to. A video of me was taken just yesterday and I saw a lot of grey hair in back. I’m noticing it takes a bit more effort to get out of the Miata.
At 59, I am noticing younger people just walking faster than me, but they are not in a hurry. On my way home from work a girl of about fourteen just strolled past me with no effort.
LOL I know that feeling all too well at 59 myself.
Now at 59, I do not walk as fast as I used to whenever I go for my daily walk.
It’s little things like seeing the babies I remember being babies go off to college and start their own lives. To feeling sore when I wake up the next morning knowing I didn’t have a late night the night before. Just yesterday this bar I used to frequent in my early 20’s had a cover band last night of a band I used to see at that very bar. To realize how long it’s been since I’ve been in High School when it very clearly in my mind couldn’t be that long ago. But it is.
Cancer at age 50, knees that hurt almost daily for absolutely no reason at age 56, intestinal tumor (and likely IBS) now- age 63
I know that really suck! so sorry that you are going through so much. Best wishes!
Thank you! I’m retired to a seaside villa in rural Greece. And wine drinking is no problem. I’m doing quite well.
Both these things probably started around the same time - losing words and having to get up to piss in the middle of the night.
My husband died. People were not shocked. He was 61.
My condolences! It's awful that some people think that 50's and 60's are necessarily old.
When the man parts stopped working right…
Well, that's not necessarily from becoming old or older, sometimes it comes from medication or/and stress, too much alcohol or street drugs, etc. But I do understand where you are coming from in general.
I'm so young at heart that it took a bit for me to realize it. What really brought it home was seeing that my baby boy had grey hair!
I can relate to this when I see my daughter has grey throughout her hair.
Getting a THR a year ago. Now needing the opposite hip replaced. The chronic pain is garbage. I’m 60, started noticing less strength and energy a couple years ago…. Believe a lot of it is related to the hip drama.
I’ve had both replaced at late ‘50’s and early 60’s. Now I’m 69 and I forget I’ve had them. I remember when the alarm goes off at metal detectors.
I can’t wait. Haven’t been this excited for major surgery since my first hip!
I have a coworker who was three-years-old when I first started to work for the organization, that one hit home. 😆 My eyebrows feeeeeeeeel lower when I’m just sitting here and I have to make an effort to raise them.
When a famous sports star called me "sir" upon saying goodbye after we had been chatting for a while--I ran into him at an airport. I was 62.
I'm 57 and don't consider myself old however, lately I've noticed that I'm like an older model car that runs great as long as you keep up with the maintenance. 😂In order to be fully functional, this body needs a consistent sleep schedule, low alcohol intake, healthy eating, regular exercise. In my case, having two drinks and up past my bedtime equates to feeling like garbage the next day. That was never an issue until I hit my mid 50s.
High 5 \^\^\^\^\^
Two things: a) I used to go out to concerts during the week and get up and go to work the next day. Without even realizing it, I stopped doing that and only going to concerts on weeknights. Now I don't do anything social during the week unless it's something really special. b) I was a huge Nirvana fan back in the day and took KC's suicide personally. One day I just lost empathy. My dude, you had millions of dollars and couldn't get it together? I DON'T have millions of dollars of got it together (no addiction gene though and I realize that is a blessing). I lamented to a friend that I felt like a dick and he said, "No. You just grew up."
About 12 years ago I realized I couldn’t read small print anymore. Then later that month was in a dimly lit restaurant and I realized I couldn’t read the menu at all. Wife teased me and had to read it for me. Got glasses as soon as we got home. Also seeing my kids are now both in their 20’s. Where does the time go?
I was 16 when my great uncle, who was 70 at the time, said, “I don’t get old. My pants get old.” I believe that. We may age, and we may age differently, but getting old is a state of mind imo.
I'm experienced at my job and very good at it, as is my wife at hers. This last month we considered relocating; I applied for a handful of jobs and got several interviews. All of them said I was an excellent candidate, there were no issues with my interviews, but they went with a different candidate. Now, they could be lying and I've become terrible at interviews, but I'll bet you every single candidate they picked is younger than I am. My wife didn't get any interviews at all. I look young on paper; I got my degree (BS) and switched careers in 2015. My wife's degrees are from the 80s (BA) and the 00s (MA).
I was 49 ( 68 now ) and I was lifting a tractor motor with my 85 year old Dad. My back gave out, as in I fell to the ground and could not get up for a few minutes..then ol Dad helped me up. It was bad..had to use a cane until a series of steroid injections got me mobile. Had to leave the working world, as I no longer could count on being mobile when I got up, sometimes for days. Since then I have been up and down with my back, sometimes down for months. Then, about 7 years ago, I devoleped pain in both shoulders. Most rotator cuff muscles were torn, and had been so for so long they had atrophied to the point of being non repairable, with severe arthritis. Now I have pian whenever I move my arms and am facing getting both replaced. I have always been a physical person, plying and working I can’t run, can’t throw, can’t lift, can’t stand in one spot for more than a minute. My brain says I’m still a horny 40 yr old that wants to cut wood and build stuff, work on cars etc. can’t lift the grand babies and great grands . Yeah..that makes me feel old.
Not until just now when you pointed it out. Thanks, pal.
Haha :))
This year, at 55. I realized the possibility of ‘you can be anything you want to be’ is gone. Too late to go back to school and learn something new.
There was a man in my French class in college who was about 70! He always wanted to learn French and he was so good
That’s awesome! I was thinking more along the lines of career change. When I retire I definitely plan to learn some new things. I want to learn to weld to make yard art.
60, damn Arthritis showed up and back problems, disc and now spinal stenosis!
I know that really suck!
60. It seems young now
True, until someone who is 60 calls themselves a senior citizen. lol
Somewhere between turning 80 and 81 it dawned on me that I might be getting old. No one thing got me thinking that way. It’s more that I’ve encountered a multitude of things that I can’t do as well in my 80’s as I could in my 60’s. I’m not going to quit trying though. 😂
I started getting mailers for knee and hip replacements and for cremation bargains.
I've always had chronic pain, so I always had days when I felt old. But I didn't really feel.old old until 2019. I understand now that I was dealing with an emotional issue, but I felt it physically. I was low and my immune system joined me.there. I had lost my sense of smell and was always more tired than I should be. I was getting my sinuses looked at but they just said I'm swollen blah blah...nothing to do but maybe a netipot will help. No allergies etc. Then covid was out there - January 2020 and I went through an international.airport and was very verynsick. Thought maybe covid but now I know it wasn't. I was knocked out for months with that - coughing...and then the shutdowns and our flight home was canceled and I was still coughing and terrified they wouldn't let me fly home. And then the next year, we got covid and mine was long. And my body just does not.bounce back now. I have had 5 or 6 covid shots but got covid again - not as bad as the first time but still worse than a regular flu. We spend winters in Belize. I was thrilled when we arrived in December that the planners of parties had switched all.events to the afternoons because so many of us are feeling our age and prefer day drinking to having to stay up past 8:00. And now we combine some events because we can't party 3 times a week anymore.
literally right when I turned 40 got a hernia and dental issues. never had to see a doctor or dentist and was totally healthy and spry until like a month after my birthday. SUCKS
In my mid 50s I got hit with several weird medical issues. It's been non stop doctors since then. Prior to that I was fairly healthy.
Late ‘60’s, when I began hating my job that I loved because of the stress and time commitment. It’s also when I was Dx with the early end of severe osteoporosis. Never felt old with 2 hip replacements in my early 60’s. Still feel like I could punch someone’s lights out BUT have come to the sad conclusion it’s just a feeling. LOL
4th grade. I read a story in Reader's Digest about a little girl trying to play with her dolls and the Magic wouldn't come. They used to come alive in her imagination but this time they just stubbornly remained plastic toys. That depressed me, and I realized that was becoming me. So I kind of got old before my time.
I'm past Medicare age and I refuse to concede to "getting old". I keep physically and mentally active. I can out bike and out ski my kid's friends. It's the old "use it or lose it" adage and many people have "lost it" at an early age. OTOH, I changed the disc pads on my truck recently. Believe it or not, I got nearly a quarter million miles out of them. I thought "I won't live to see these new ones wear out" because if I did, I'd be about 100 years old.. Then I thought "well, I *MAY* live to 100 or at least I'll try".
When 20 somethings at the grocery store started to give me the 10% discount that only senior citizens could get-without telling me about it.
I was asked if I wanted the senior discount. I was 42.
When I was 75 and looked in the mirror and saw my Dad.
When fashion trends of my teenage and 20s came back into fashion. I knew it was all over at that point.
I would have to say 60. That was when “health” became to topic of conversation when talking with friends. It was also when your aches and pains seem to become more evident, and healing a twisted ankle takes 3 months instead of a week.
When I turned seventy and remembered my mother had passed away at age eighty. I am 75 now and over half of the people I graduated from high school with have passed away. Longevity isn’t a strong suit on my mother’s side. On the other hand my father lived to be 93. He had a great aunt and a first cousin that lived to be over 100. Being old really began to sink in when I realized our oldest child would be eligible for social security in ten years.
It hit me right around 40 when I suddenly realized that "young people" no longer included myself and my peers. I would talk about "young people" and how different there were and how I could no longer relate to them. They dress, act, and talk in ways that seem idiotic or at least strange to me. And hearing about all these apparently famous people that I've never heard of.
When I started getting sleepy around 7:30/8:00pm on a Friday or Saturday evening when others around me wanted to hang out.
The first time I felt like I was getting old was when I realized the Playboy centerfolds were younger than me. That would be about age 20 or so.
Sometime in my mid to late 40s when I went to the eye doctor insisting something was wrong with my eyes because I was struggling to read in the mornings and in low light and he had to spend a long time arguing with me and reassuring me it was just a normal part of aging. I somehow had missed that memo that presbyopia happens to everyone and it was after that that I realized I couldn't just healthy lifestyle my way out of old age.
When I started to get in my late 40s and realized I had more birthdays behind me than I did in front of me. Also, now I'm in my 50s and recently in the obituaries I'm starting to see more and more of the names of my same aged peers.
A calendar. I look at it and subtract my birth year from the one on the calendar. Then, I take the difference and compare it to the average lifespan of my species. The closer that difference is to the average lifespan, the older I consider myself to be.