How do you feel about getting older?
By Hannah828
@Hannah828 (88)
United States
November 12, 2006 10:26pm CST
I am 38, and every time I think of that, I feel shocked....Like I have just been slapped in the face. It has never before affected me like it has this year. I just feel so much older than ever. I feel like so many parts of my life are gone and I did not even get to say goodbye. Mostly, I feel some physical things catching up to me that were very unexpected. I am wondering how everyone else feels about aging?
14 responses
@denishvedi (19)
• India
13 Nov 06
when I was twenty I thought that at forty I shall have this and that Now I'm forty and things still elude me. I have still not started painting. I have added to that list but not reduced. It seems that years are gone fron the period I had to achieve. It seems like yesterday when I was twenty.
A gloom overpowers me when I think that this way I'll be sixty, seventy and gone from the face of earth with no reduction in the things I thought to achieve when I was twenty.
........but it is nice to share this feeling of helplessness.LOL
@Hannah828 (88)
• United States
13 Nov 06
I feel your helplessness as well. Each day that goes by, there are more things added to my "list" and less things deducted from it. There is never enough time. Never, ever enough. My biggest thing right now are my children, (7 and 3) whom I had envisioned doing all of these wonderful maternal things with and am lucky if we get to walk to the playground together once a week. I see a trend in the fact that people feel like they have reached a certain age and have not accomplished "XYZ" and this is distressing.
Is it possible that our current society stresses accomplishment so much, that we are at the point we can never be satisfied with our achievements. Is this just a matter of perception? I am a perfectionist and have an insatiable need to achieve. Nothing will ever be enough, I fear.
@Hannah828 (88)
• United States
13 Nov 06
Well, both are happening to me too...now. So apparently I am in some sort of time warp.
@margieanneart (26423)
• United States
13 Nov 06
I hate it. It is not the golden years, it is the tarnished years.
@Signal20 (2281)
• United States
13 Nov 06
I agree, I'm 34, and I keep thinking, what happened? I'll start talking about something that seems like it happened a year or two ago, and it was more like 10 years ago....It sucks, I just try to think about it. No sense dwelling on it, can't change it. But, no, not happy about it lol....
@gotOBX (764)
• United States
13 Nov 06
The physical side of aging hasn't really gotten to me yet too badly. I am 37 and I follow what you're saying however. You kinda start thinking.....wow, I'm almost 40! It affects us all differently I guess. My body is 37 except for my knees, they are going on 50. My friends and I use to joke in our late teens and early 20's we'd never make it to 40. I'm glad we were wrong. Certainly don't rebound as easily after a night of partying/drinking.
@Hannah828 (88)
• United States
13 Nov 06
Yeah, its like you cant really enjoy being 37, 38, 39 anymore because all you are thinking is 40 40 40!
Actually it takes me less to recover from a night out partying now, for the simple fact that I cant stay up as long, or drink as much! LOL!
@Hannah828 (88)
• United States
13 Nov 06
OK...how old are you, might I ask? And who said I want to die young?
@sherijmccane (905)
• United States
13 Nov 06
I am 40 just turned it in June and I hated it I didnt do anything I didnt answer my cell phone my texts or nothing i just wanted to be left alone
@atbpa5 (663)
• United States
13 Nov 06
Iam 40 and this year has really made me feel old. All the other birthday's didn't bother me much at all but this one has really disgusted me..lol I alos have dwelled on things that I never have before like thinking that I'll never get to travel to other countries and that I'm too old to start any new careers or that I'm too old to relate to people younger than I am. I really need glasses but I refuse to get them because I never had to have them before..HECK I used to read in what was almost darkness! I feel exactly like you on the aging issue..sad thing is that in 4 months I'll be 41..then I'll have to start saying things about being 41 years old..lol
@pendragon (3348)
• United States
13 Nov 06
I am getting older, I just don't feel like it at all, so I guess it's ok!
@Hannah828 (88)
• United States
13 Nov 06
well that is nice for you now isn't it?
(says Hannah, disgustedly)
@Hannah828 (88)
• United States
13 Nov 06
Thanks...It is not that I am not loving life...Just that I am aware of time passing so much quicker now, and aware of my body changing.
@moneyseeker (1024)
•
13 Nov 06
I'm older than you but I think getting older is a mind thing. Sure we look a little different but I feel we start to act and feel as we believe we should at certain ages instead of how we want to feel. In other words we are programmed.
We have to alter our self image and thinking and live our life as we want to - not how others tell us we should.
