# Do you feel young, old, or middle-aged?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 13, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759 "2009-02-13T23:32:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/1 "2009-02-13T23:32:08Z")
Please note that I’m not asking your phsyical or chronological age, but rather how you feel now. You can define _now_ as you wish: that is, it can be the very moment you answer the question, or it can be how you feel in general. If you wish to explain why you can; if it’s too much trouble, or too intrusive, that’s fine too.
Answering my question: generally I feel young; I have since I met **Kim the Rhymer**. Today, though the combination of her and my stepdaughter and my nieces discussing someone named Rihana makes me feel very old.
Anybody else?
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### Author:  [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/2 "2009-02-13T23:41:11Z")
Young. I’m constantly amazed that the 22-year-old actress who’s playing a Real Adult Woman on TV is not, in fact, older than I am, because God knows, I am not a Real Adult Woman.
My mother, who just turned 72, still thinks of herself as young as well, so I’m guessing this feeling is not going to go away.
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### Author:  [@imfloating](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/imfloating)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/3 "2009-02-13T23:51:39Z")
Some days I feel young and some days I feel old but that doesn’t change the fact that on all the days…I am old. The numbers are there. I may be jumping the gun but I look at my dogs and wonder what they’re going to do when I’m gone. I just turned 60 and sometimes ask if this is a rational way of thinking. The dogs have no opinion on this.
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/4 "2009-02-13T23:53:52Z")
I feel ancient.
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### Author:  [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/5 "2009-02-13T23:54:04Z")
I’ll be 40 in August. I feel young. I can hardly believe I’m allowed to own a house.
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### Author:  [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/6 "2009-02-13T23:54:50Z")
I’m 81 but I still feel like 35. Physically, that’s another matter.
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2009, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/7 "2009-02-14T00:08:52Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#):
>
> Please note that I’m not asking your phsyical or chronological age, but rather how you feel now. You can define _now_ as you wish: that is, it can be the very moment you answer the question, or it can be how you feel in general. If you wish to explain why you can; if it’s too much trouble, or too intrusive, that’s fine too.
>
> Answering my question: generally I feel young; I have since I met **Kim the Rhymer**. Today, though the combination of her and my stepdaughter and my nieces discussing someone named Rihana makes me feel very old.
>
> Anybody else?
I’m 55 and I feel middle-aged.
This is because:
- I am semi-retired 🙂
- I know who[**Rihanna**](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WAapKx2TvM) is 🆒
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### Author:  [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2009, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/8 "2009-02-14T00:19:14Z")
I’m a 29 y/o brat\*. I do however sometimes feel the need to grow up and get serious.
Then I have another beer.
\*Brat defined here as an unresponsible, hardpartying, seize the day-kinda, young guy
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### Author:  [@Karyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karyn)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2009, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/9 "2009-02-14T00:24:49Z")
I’m 49 and I feel middle aged but I’m not at all unhappy about it. I got to retire early, I’m active and in good shape and I have no health problems, so this is a whole lot better than I ever imagined it would be.
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### Author:  [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/10 "2009-02-14T00:26:18Z")
Well, my heart says “Go for it” and my body says “Just a damn minute, now.” So, I guess I feel young but at the same time, old enough to know better.
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### Author:  [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/11 "2009-02-14T01:01:12Z")
Generally young. Still in school, go dancing in clubs, get hit on by the 18-25 demographic. Coworkers who are young use inclusive pronouns when talking with me about generational things.
I feel old, though, when I bring up things that happened when I was a teenager or younger. Schoolmates, coworkers, and dates will all invariably squeal with delight and let me know how old _they_ were at that time, if they were even born then. I felt a little old the first time I dated someone born in the 1980s; I felt _really_ old when I found out the girl who asked me out last week was 2 when I was to graduate high school.
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### Author:  [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2009, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/12 "2009-02-14T01:06:32Z")
It depends on what I’m doing when you ask. If I’m blushing because a cute guy is flirting with me or I’m singing out loud with my radio while driving, I feel young. If I’m groaning because I have to bend over to pick something up, or I’m frustrated because I don’t know what’s wrong my with my computer, I feel old. I’m 40.
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### Author:  [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/13 "2009-02-14T01:07:46Z")
I’m 37. I feel really old and really tired.
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### Author:  [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/14 "2009-02-14T01:09:32Z")
I feel like I present a middle aged image to others, but what they don’t know is that there is a young kid inside…(my wife does know this)
And I am “older” - 65 and loving it!
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2009, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/15 "2009-02-14T01:46:43Z")
I feel misplaced.
I’m 39, and am very aware of getting older, mostly because my body is beginning to fail. But I don’t feel as old as 39 used to seem.
I am not expecting a long life, if my immediately preceding ancestors are anything to go by. So technically, I don’t think numerically I’m “middle” aged. I’m long past the middle.
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### Author:  [@Karyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karyn)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2009, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/16 "2009-02-14T01:51:28Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#):
>
> But I don’t feel as old as 39 used to seem.
It never does, and that’s a good thing. I used to see 50 as being a senior citizen but at 49 I have all of the energy to do anything that I want to. I don’t feel in the least bit old.
Reading some of the threads from younger people looking for advice makes me feel like I’m from a different generation but that’s OK with me too. I’m glad to have all of that uncertainty, confusion and drama behind me and be just cruising in happily content.
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### Author:  [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2009, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/17 "2009-02-14T02:04:16Z")
I died when I was 15 years old, although it took me a fairly long time to notice. That was many years ago. I’m still 15 years old.
Thanks to a rare natural preservation effect known as saponification, the tissues of my corpse were largely converted into a greasy soaplike material called adipocere or “grave wax,” thus retaining a somewhat lifelike appearance. At my current progressive rate of decay, I anticipate that my carcass will finally decompose into total immobility in 20 or 25 years. When that happens, I will still be 15 years old.
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### Author:  [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2009, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/18 "2009-02-14T02:16:08Z")
> [@Terrifel](#):
>
> I died when I was 15 years old, although it took me a fairly long time to notice. That was many years ago. I’m still 15 years old.
>
> Thanks to a rare natural preservation effect known as saponification, the tissues of my corpse were largely converted into a greasy soaplike material called adipocere or “grave wax,” thus retaining a somewhat lifelike appearance. At my current progressive rate of decay, I anticipate that my carcass will finally decompose into total immobility in 20 or 25 years. When that happens, I will still be 15 years old.
Are you, by chance, [Melanie Griffith](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zmQZ5CrTAlw/RkSIbyHbZ8I/AAAAAAAAAMI/smN0puJ7mos/s320/melanie-griffith-looks-old-02.jpg)?
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### Author:  [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/19 "2009-02-14T02:32:30Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#):
>
> Are you, by chance, [Melanie Griffith](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zmQZ5CrTAlw/RkSIbyHbZ8I/AAAAAAAAAMI/smN0puJ7mos/s320/melanie-griffith-looks-old-02.jpg)?
She’s married to Antonio Banderas isn’t she? So to my knowledge, no I am not her.
As it happens that knee does look strangely familiar though. By a curious coincidence, this morning the carcass-flesh around my right knee was bloated with the filthy gasses of decomposition. I went to the doctor and she said it was bursitis.
But then I went home and looked it up, and apparently bursitis is something that only happens to living people. So somebody’s giving me bad information here.
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### Author:  [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2009, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-young-old-or-middle-aged/485759/20 "2009-02-14T02:52:20Z")
Chronologically I’m 43; some days I feel 22, some days I feel 82.
How old I feel involves various circumstances and their percentages; what kind of mood(s) my wife and, more importantly, my kid, are in, also how much caffeine I’ve ingested, the sucesses and failures of my day-to-day endeavours, and how many assholes I encounter out in the world.
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