Getting Older...

Checkers at the grocery store call you 'manuscript'?

Wayne K said:

Checkers at the grocery store call you 'manuscript'?

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dork

I'm 33.

PWNED.

i knew i was old when my youngest child's teachers were ALL younger than me. I went to parent/teacher interviews this year and thought, "This whipper snapper is FAR too young to know their ABCs, let alone teach my child!" I knew then that I was the age of the curmudgeon.

Actually I cried all day when I turned thirty. And I got sick of people saying, "Oh, but you're still young though."

The point is, I didn't feel as if I was. And now, like then, I feel as if I haven't done enough with my life. I'm the only one who can change that, sure, but I'm not sure how much of the time.

/whinge off.

scarletpeaches said:

Actually I cried all day when I turned thirty. And I got sick of people saying, "Oh, but you're still young though."

The point is, I didn't feel as if I was. And now, like then, I feel as if I haven't done enough with my life. I'm the only one who can change that, sure, but I'm not sure how much of the time.

/whinge off.

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Yep.


/agreeing with Peachy off.

I didn't notice a thing until my docs started treating me differently - on the dot at 35 - and running new tests at physicals and things. And that same year my neighbor called my generation middle-aged.

I still don't care, btw I still dated classmates at school. I just didn't warn them that I was probably older than they thought! One was a good 6-8 years younger than I thought, too. Ooops

Everyone, I think, has an age (or ages) where they feel like they make a transition from one point of life to another. I can think of them distinctly -- 17, 26 and 35. Just had my 40th birthday recently and it meant nothing. However, 35 meant bunches, because I'd reconciled that there was a certain mental gateway I'd be passing through in terms of physical, mental and spiritual miles. The numbers meant little, other than they were the numbers I felt the transition at the time.

Don't get too obsessed with the number. It matters more to other people because other people want to compare, contrast and feel better about themselves. I'd bet that self-esteem lies with discovering all that's great about you, capitalizing on it and then building upon that foundation.

And the kid in the grocery store -- at least he's well trained.

brainstorm77 said:

I will be 32 on the 21st of August and well lemme tell ya sometimes I feel my age!
No longer am I the youngest at work etc..... And I notice certain things in life that just make me feel older like being called Ms. by the young checkers at the grocery store and well realizing that certain clothing styles are not that appropiate anymore... Am I the only one who seemed to wake up one day and think OMG I'm getting older?

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Ya need to get over it. And quickly. The age thing doesn't get better. Stay stuck in the mindset that you are 'feeling your age' and you are in for a world of hurt.

You are 32. Marvel in it. It is a glorious age. Celebrate who you are as you are now. There will be time later for moping, believe me.

I'm turning 37 in a few months. I remember when my mom was 37 and I thought she was so old. I don't feel as old as I thought she was. My kids are still young, had them in my late 20's, early 30's. I don't feel like I'm almost 40. I certainly don't act like it! I don't wanna be a grown up yet. Maybe when I'm 50.

16-17 were my best years. 33 was about my worst. i'll be 43 in about a month.

15 there's still time for you
22 I feel her too
33 you're on your way
Every day's a new day...
15 there's still time for you
Time to buy and time to choose
Hey 15, there's never a wish better than this
When you only got 100 years to live

I'll be 42 this year, but I've never felt the 'Holy crap, I'm ____ years old!' thing. My joints creak a bit more than they once did, but other than that...meh.

Of course, emotionally I'm still the same as I was in high school, so I'm sure that's got a lot to do with it.

Seconding what Justine90210 just said.

Thirty was a big birthday for me. I'd always had it in my mind that that was the age I'd become an adult. And yet I felt no different physically or mentally than I had the day before. It was just an emotional thing. "Oh god; now I'm in my thirties!"

Nothing special happened that year though. I changed jobs when I was 31. My writing exploded when I was 32 (started talking to tt42 every day, got consistent, productive, found my genre at long last).

So whenever I've had A BIG NUMBER in mind, it's never meant a thing other than a day in bed, crying.

Strange. In one way I feel old, because I'm in my mid-30s. And yet physically I'm fine. Mentally I'm stronger. Emotionally too. There's just so much I haven't done. I don't know what - all I know is, something's missing and with each birthday, that's one more year deleted from my reserve of 'time I have left to figure it out'.

Ambrosia said:

Ya need to get over it. And quickly. The age thing doesn't get better. Stay stuck in the mindset that you are 'feeling your age' and you are in for a world of hurt.

You are 32. Marvel in it. It is a glorious age. Celebrate who you are as you are now. There will be time later for moping, believe me.

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Bullshit. If getting to your thirties isn't worse than any other age, then neither can it be automatically glorious.

If braindead feels bad about it, then she feels bad. If age is irrelevant, then it can't possibly be connected to how good she ought to feel either, never mind how bad she feels.

If you're not happy, then 32 is a shitty age. For me, it wasn't bad because as I said, my writing took off then.

I still feel young, and the fact I don't want kids takes away worries about my biological clock ticking, but the fact remains, I'm in my thirties now and I don't want to be.

Stupid or not, I feel like time's running out and no amount of, "Hey! You're great! Glory in your thirties!" will change that.

I had someone special die when she was 18 and I was a few years older. If she could die at 18, it's all gravy past that. All of it.

Actually, that's the bad part about getting older, imho. People you know die. I don't know how my heart'll take being elderly.

scarletpeaches said:

Stupid or not, I feel like time's running out and no amount of, "Hey! You're great! Glory in your thirties!" will change that.

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Hey! You're great! Glory in your thirties!

Hey! You're great! Glory in your thirties!

Hey! You're great! Glory in your thirties!



Um...nevermind.

I've hit the big four-oh this year and I have to admit that the thing that changed was my outlook on life.
I have been stuck in a crappy job for the past 8 years while I was trying to do the sensible thing, be responsible and "grown-up", earn a living with a normal job (as they say), but at the beginning of the year I had a good look at everything and decided that I had already wasted enough, and that it was time to really do what I enjoy.

That's one of the reasons I am here, I'd like to give my best shot at earning enough money writing to at least downscale to a part time job.
I have never valued the time I spent out the office as much as I do now, whether I'm writing or spending time with friends or with my partner.

Yeah, 30 was "OMG I'm stuck as a grown-up now!" I had excuses for fumbling through life crap in my 20s, but no longer felt I could get away with that in my 30s. Turned 32 in June. Haven't done nearly all the things I thought I would by now, don't like my living sitch, and keep getting startled in the mirror by the fine lines and white hairs. My skin started freaking out in 2007. Ugh.

Oh, BTW...I still get acne.

Life's a bitch.

scarletpeaches said:

Oh, BTW...I still get acne.

Life's a bitch.

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Oh, BTW... I still get acne.

Life's a bitch.

I was making the point, SP, that at 30 the kind of mindset of 'feeling one's age' will only make the following decades more depressing. How you feel at any age is largely a matter of how you think. Think young, and you will feel young. Think old, and you are there.

Today I think I may finally be old.

Now I am going to go do something 'young' to fight off that bs thinking.

Hey Brain,

My gran's going to be exactly 70 years older than you on August 21st ;o) I gave myself until I was 35 to find an agent and get this thing going--that's about a month away. Oh well, I lie to myself all the time.

Too bad at 30 (or 32) you don't have the perspective you'll have by the ages of 40 or 50 - it might change how you look at 30. That's why people who are in their 40s and 50s are always annoyingly telling you what a great age you're at - they have perspective you couldn't possibly have ... unless you're channeling someone older than you.

Remember your post today and think back on it when you turn 50.

As for me: turning 50 on Jan. 14. Remind self all the time that 50 is the new 30. Bones hurt. Joints ache. But I'm always optimistic.

Life can disappoint at any age - but it's not all in the sinker at 30 or 32. That said, you feel how and what you want to feel. People telling you that you should feel a certain way only makes you feel worse when you don't feel that way.
But there are always possibilities - at 32, 50 or 70.

Sigh, I know I've told people on this board that I am 30.

It is in fact, a dirty, horrible lie.

I am 29. I turn 30 next month, on the 11th. (Yes, 9/11)

So this is the big one for me

What am I doing about it you ask?

I'm goin to VEGAS BABY!!!!!!!!!