I’m 45. Sometimes people act surprised to hear my age - don’t think it’s for show - but honestly I think I look roughly my age and I’m fine with that. It’s younger people who are the most surprised. They’re often especially shocked to hear that I have a daughter about their age. But it’s not that unusual to look like me and have an adult daughter.
The only time people assume I’m older is when I’m in a wheelchair. Then I gain around 30 years, no exaggeration.
Physically I feel about 100 and I know I probably won’t live to proper old age. Mentally I feel about 28 and probably always will. I have a (not entirely serious) theory that people are born a certain age and stay that way all their lives - I mean, everyone’s met 5-year-olds who seem middle aged and pensioners who seem like teenagers. My friend P was probably always 40, R is definitely always 25, and K has been 64 since he could talk.
I’m 56, and most people who don’t know otherwise guess me at being in my mid-late 40s. Though my hair is thinning on top (and has been since my late 20s), I still don’t have any gray hair, though now that I have a COVID beard, there are a few gray flecks in there.
I generally haven’t ever “felt” my age, as an adult, in part because I still enjoy the things that I enjoyed when I was younger (playing D&D, reading comic books, etc.), rather than adopting interests and pastimes that struck me as being “things that adults do.” And, other than developing diabetes 16 years ago, I’ve generally been pretty healthy, and in reasonably good shape, which has also helped me to not “feel old.” On the other hand, the past 24 months have been full of all sorts of stress (only partially due to COVID), and I’m definitely feeling the mileage lately.
Depends on how you parse it. I definitely feel like I’ve been alive for 63 years, give or take. On the other hand, I feel like I’m only a minor ways past the halfway point and have four decades and change in front of me yet, and I don’t think that’s typical of folks in their 60s. A lot of my cohort seem to be thinking of themselves as mostly over.
I’m looking forward to the observations of the 1000th anniversary of the Norman Conquest.
Do I look my age? I don’t know - people at work are often surprised at my age when I mention that I’m planning to retire even though I could have retired three years ago at 55. I wonder how much of that is because I actually don’t look my age and how much is because people form their opinions of what looks “old” early in life. I don’t think I look all that much younger ( if at all) that other people who are currently my age, but I do look younger than my mother and grandmother did at my age. As far as feeling my age - the only time I really feel my age is when I spend time with my 2 year old granddaughter. She exhausts me far more than my own kids did when they were 2 and I was in my twenties.
I turned 65 in August and up until quite recently, I felt younger than that. I could easily walk 3 miles a day. I’ve gained a little over 10 pounds though since the pandemic started and it’s kicking my butt to carry it around. My back hurts all the time and the medication I take may also be causing some of the weight gain. I haven’t felt like walking much for the last couple of weeks, but I think it’s because I went back to work a couple of months ago and I think that’s really making my back issues a lot worse.
I think I have usually looked close to my actual age, but I’m a terrible judge on ages.
If you’d asked me a year ago, I’d say I did feel old, and achey and exhausted. I would say I looked a few years younger than my 50-at-the-time, but that’s mostly due to how I dressed.
However I recently lost a lot of weight, giving me a lot of energy back, less pressure on my joints, and I even feel lighter and more springy as I walk; I actually feel a good fifteen years younger than my age (52 next week) though I still look largely the same - I’m still mostly bald and grey. Slimmer, but not by a huge margin; in baggy shirts I doubt anybody would notice.
I turned 60 in July. I don’t feel I look 60 and people are always surprised when I tell them how old I am.
I’m at a good weight, I’ve never smoked and don’t drink (never liked it). My dogs keep me moving. I walk anywhere from 4.5-6 miles per day. I don’t have any aches or pains, I don’t have any health issues, I don’t take any medication or supplements. I jump right out of bed every morning as I did 30 years ago. There’s nothing that I used to do that I can’t do now. My face is not wrinkled even though I worship the sun. I have olive skin from my Italian blood, so that might help. I don’t have much gray, just some around my hairline (my roots are not gray).
I’m pushing 50 and probably look it although I could lose several years by shaving off my grey-ridden beard since my hair up top hasn’t changed color. It has thinned though so there’s only so much it can do to hide my years. I lost 50lbs in 2020 and gained half of it back in 2021. I need to work on that since it really did have a measurable impact on my energy levels and general sprightliness.
Mentally/socially, I still enjoy my video games and role-playing games and am regularly finding new music made by a buncha 20 year old kids on Spotify. So I guess I don’t feel old that way but I do feel it in my bones from time to time. I’m trying to remember my youth and what I assumed 50 year olds did for fun – golf, fishing, watching TV sports and drinking a lot? All fine hobbies (well, not the last one) but none appeal to me.
I have some health issues that make me feel older than I am (sleep problems, mostly, but also some joint pain related to being overweight).
On the other hand, that same excess weight, plus relatively little gray hair, contributes to my looking somewhat younger: my face has enough underlying fat that I don’t look especially wrinkled. Certainly less so than my mother at the same age - to be fair, she spent a lot of time in the sun AND she was a smoker. But I’ve had several doctors express surprise when I told them my age.
Of interest: there are articles out there about how a person’s face looks older after bariatric surgery - again due to the loss of fat. When a friend went keto, she pulled off most of her excess weight and she truly looked older.
I’ve recently noticed that my one-sided gray streak has started to appear on the right side of my head as well. Drat.
I have to agree with FCM that our parents, at any given age, were “older” than we are at the same age. I’m not sure about the causes of that, but I expect it’s a combination of things. Better access to dentistry and healthcare over the years? Some better lifestyle choices (e.g. not smoking)? changing perceptions?
The one thing that has aged me more than anything else is type 2 diabetes, which I’ve had for over 30 years. It affects EVERYTHING, and will literally be the death of me. But so far, it hasn’t affected my appearance.
I’m in my mid-40s. I probably look my age, but definitely don’t act my age. And I sure as heck don’t feel my age. Some of that is that any aches and pains can still be mitigated by better body/brain maintenance, but mostly it’s cluelessness. Meaning, I always thought I’d know what I was doing by now - I’d be confident and capable at parenting, at work, I’d feel super good about myself. So far I’ve found that I am generally capable at parenting and work - typically. I am not confident in parenting (surely I’m destroying my kids or at least giving them plenty of fodder for later therapy). I’m capable at work, but pretty sure I’m doing it wrong nonetheless. And while I’ve made peace with myself for the most part, I have a sneaking suspicion I kind of suck. I just need to be one with the suck.
What really makes me feel old is crossword clues that reference rap singers and flavor-of-the-month actors, few of which I’ve ever heard of. Also, WTF is “K-pop” music? C’mon, I just got “emo” memorized!
It’s short for “Korean popular music,” and is a style/genre which originated in South Korea. In the past couple of years, with South Korean groups like the boy band BTS becoming extremely popular in other markets, the genre has grown in visibility here in the U.S.
Hair color makes a huge difference. Before i went gray people asked if my daughter was my sister. Now that my hair is gray i think people overestimate my age, where they used to underestimate it.
I’m in my fifties, but most of my friends are either in their 30s or their 70s. So I feel i can adapt to a variety of … Age-styles? Do i feel my age? I dunno, I’m not sure what this age is supposed to feel like. I get annoying foot pain, but it doesn’t perfect me from doing stuff.
I am just beginning to get “old lady skin” on parts of my arms. That will likely make me look a lot older. Or maybe the hair already does that.
It’s another sign of age, I guess. I’m kinda stuck in the 80s-90s when it comes to rock/pop music, and usually am just listening to jazz when I’m not in the car.
We found an old crossword puzzle book in the basement that got stashed when we became parents because “we do crossword puzzles together” was let go in the “who has time or mental capacity for crossword puzzles” of two small children and two careers. The kids are in their 20s. Yep, 25 year old crossword puzzle clues… Crossword puzzle books are usually not up to the minute to start with.
At 58, I’m a pretty big fan of k-pop, owing to my lifelong interest in Things That Are Weird. The music is catchy, some of the people very talented, and the high production value videos are often just… wtf. The first one I saw was “I Am The Best” by 2NE1, and I’ve been in the rabbit hole ever since.