This is so unfair and I don’t think there is anything I can do about it.
Some background: I’m 28 and in pretty good health. Sure, I eat pretty rich food and I love my pasta (which I make from scratch), but I [sub]usually[/sub] do something active a couple times a week. My parents are in good health at 65 and 56, and there is no history of any major illness in my family (except for a case of gout my Grandfather on my mothers side had many many years ago.)
My father is Italian born, Calabrese, raised in Brooklyn and has all the trademark ethnic characteristics: olive skin, slightly heavy (but he wears it well) and black wavy hair. My mother was born and raised in Holland, and it’s from her side I got my height. She’s got the fair skin, lean body and rich, brown hair.
Growing up, I used to swim and bike and do outdoor things all summer long so I was lean, I’d tan at the drop of a hat and my hair would eventually turn from blonde-brown to straw-white. As I got older, I had less time for the running and playing and I’ve put on a pound or two, stayed somewhere between olive and tan-ish and my hair has become steadily more brown, though it sometimes seems blonde, depending on the cut (high-and-tight vs. high-and-regulation).
In the past year, I’ve moved three times: one because of a down-sizing/intra-company move; the second due to my quitting that job and moving back to a town I love, to be near people that are important to me, damn the job; the most recent due to the job I took in that city I love that requires me to be hours away from home, family and friends. Sure, it’s a “temporary” move, but I’ve been here over 5 months, so it’s getting pretty tedious.
I wouldn’t say I’m a stressed out individual, but some of my friends might tell you different. My BP has been steady (and high) around 159/98, pulse of 64, for months now, but my serum cholesterol is only about 129. I don’t mind Louisville, but I try to get out of this town as often as possible. The work I’m doing is simplistic in the extreme, which is conversely aggravating in it’s ease, but I’m well compensated for it, so I take that with a grain of salt. I suppose I am stressed. Stressed and irritated. I know I’ve got it a lot better than many, but it’s all relative and to me, I’m grinding me teeth almost every day, trying to figure out a way to get back home, be near my friends and decompress.
Here’s the thing, the reason I’ve been thinking of all this, evaluating my life at 28 and writing it out: today I went to the bathroom and while washing my hands I looked in the mirror…and saw my first gray hair!
