Why do you feel old? (If you do.)

[Matthew74]

When I was younger I told myself I wouldn't talk about being old. I try not to say it around other people, but I do. There could be a lot of reasons for feeling old, but is there one particular thing that makes you feel old?

My aching body is a big one. My look of my skin is another. Another one is when people who are successful or in responsible positions are younger than me. There's also the thing where you meet an adult who was born after you graduated high school.

I think maybe there's two types of old. There's the one that you get when you no longer feel young, and there's the one you get where you realize that the first kind wasn't really old. I've got the first kind.

 

[AlohaBird]

It really makes me feel old when people 13 and 18 years younger than me start talking about feeling old!

Not really. I feel younger now than I did at 40. It is possible to make it go the other way.

 

[MrE]

Nuff said...

 

[seizuregirl]

I feel old because my oldest niece just graduated high school. (I babysat her almost daily from when she was an infant to when she was 12yrs old)
I also feel old when I look at my face in the mornings and I have bags under my eyes, and it feels like my face is sagging too.

I could also say I feel old because of the grey hair I have on my head, but I've had grey hair since my early 20's. I'm used to that!

 

[Bidwell]

Except for its obvious drawbacks, I have enjoyed feeling old. I feel old when I notice the radical change of perspective that comes with age, since there is more time behind you than ahead of you and that means you are looking at everything in a new way -- there is no choice. You HAVE TO. I just LOVE that! I also enjoy realizing that some of the people in my past were honest to goodness jerks whereas I was pretty terrific whereas in times gone by I thought I was a real jerk and they were pretty terrific. I am amazed by this new perspective. I can ALSO see times when I was even more of a jerk than I thought before, but I have a lot of new information that I can use to forgive myself so I do. I tell you, being old isn't as bad as some of you may have thought. And sometimes it is AWFUL.

 

[MrE]

I have some pwetty silver hairs...but I like em

 

[Fedup]

I never realised I was getting old until I went to visit my mother and ran into some friends and they introduced there children to me, 18 years of age. I got invited to a wedding last year, it was lovely time, it was my niece getting married, I babysat her and brought her to school.

 

[MrE]

It's so awkward when they say the moment you begin to live is the moment you begin to die...as if there really was an "ending" or a "beginning" for that matter...I swear life is so weird...


~ Death

 

[Bidwell]

Maybe it is that when you are really alive, you are in free fall. After all, I know I don't know when I began and I know I have no idea when I will end! Maybe life is not so weird. Maybe it is our thinking that is weird.

 

[Matthew74]

Maybe it is that when you are really alive, you are in free fall. After all, I know I don't know when I began and I know I have no idea when I will end! Maybe life is not so weird. Maybe it is our thinking that is weird.

I think that's definitely true. Reflection, in terms of thinking about things can be good, but reflection in terms of just paying attention is better. I remember when I would look at things as a kid without talking to myself about them or "thinking" about them. I just looked at a flower or the grass, or the room I was in and simply watched it, paid attention to it. I didn't think about what time it was, or what I was going to do next. Just there in the moment. I wish I could have that back. Sometimes I try when I go for a hike, or in the art museum, but it doesn't happen often. You get too wrapped up in what you think about the world to see or experience it.

 

[Bidwell]

Matt -- MAKE it happen. I am very fortunate to have grown up with people who took writing and art making seriously every day. I was expected to be interested in whatever I scribbled and whatever I could put into words. My mother was a pain in the neck when she said, as she often did, The world is so full of a number of things/We should all be as happy as kings.At the same time she seems to have fortified me in ways I wish on you. Get a notebook. Get TWO notebooks! You write very well.

 

[Bidwell]

What I mean is that by paying attention, both visual and verbal, you can find your way back into The Thing In Itself. I think you, especially, can do that because I have such vivid pictures in my mind from what you have posted. I will never forget that place you live in RedWing. If you could communicate the pain of that situation to to me, surely you could get the pleasure of the moment to you!

 

[Matthew74]

Thank you! I've been practicing my music more. I've been playing again for about 3 years? Maybe 2. But, I'm just starting to get the hang of it again. It takes a long time to turn the words/singing off in your head and pay attention to the music. I'm also trying to memorize it (which is REALLY hard for me). When I play without the music in front of me, I'm not distracted by the notes on the page, and play better.

 

[C0urt]

Nickelodeon, rugrats, Rocko's modern life. Dexter's lab, Danny elfman,
having to explain these things to people,
the list goes on,

 

[N Sperlo]

I'm not old. I feel like I'm in my early 20s. Then I'm at the bar and there are people in their early 20s and I'm like, nope. I'm young, but not THAT young.

 

[MrE]

My phone is at 5 bars at once getting free "wifeye"

 

[sarah hill]

I feel old when my friends talk about life in the most casual way, "oh hes ill" , "she's suicidal", and when they party so much and don't look after themselves, i feel old. because i can't afford to just party and let loose...or ill have some super cool seizures!