The older I get, the less I care about getting older. I’m perfectly content being 61, and I’ll be just as content when I turn 62. Yes, I have medical problems, but they’re manageable. And yes, I have psychological issues and social issues, but I’m used to them. But the important thing is that I still have goals for the future, and I also take time to smell the roses. Beyond that, longevity is not an issue for me.
And local news. I stopped watching it when each station started reporting on their own reality shows, as if these were legitimate news items. Now, I don’t know what’s going on in my community, and I don’t give a rat’s ass.
It’s a great relief as I get older to realize that no one is paying all that much attention to me, and even if they are, their opinions genuinely don’t matter.
I still care about my appearance, but I don’t care how others feel about it. For instance, there was a time when I didn’t want to wear “mom jeans” because they’d make me look old and clueless. Then I recalled that I wore high-waisted jeans in the eighties and I thought they looked good. The only thing that’s changed since then is other people’s opinions.
Mine is shopping. I used to live to shop, even when I had no money, I could spend hours walking thru the malls to see what’s new, what’s for sale, what I’ll buy when I get my paycheck. Trying on clothes, trying on shoes, poring thru cards at the Hallmark store, wandering thru the bookstores.
Now, I do still like shopping, but I don’t set foot in department stores or malls any more. I prefer to shop at places like Marshall’s, Tuesday Morning, Big Lots, etc, and only go when I really need something.
I realized back in my mid 20’s that I could love a book and not have to possess it. The library has saved me hundreds of dollars and thousands of pounds of books to have to figure out where store. Duh!!
I care deeply about music, but not about going to concerts. That used to be the ultimate…seeing the band I love live and in person!!! Now, it’s just not that big of a thrill, especially when you can catch live performances all over the internet. I go to maybe one or two shows a year now when it used to be a weekly occurrence back in the day.
Oh, good one! I used to consider concert-going the ultimate in fun, and now it seems just more trouble than it’s worth. A shame, too, now that all my old favorites are touring together and doing small shows and what not.
Somehow, that reminded me: I loved to go swimming as a kid. Now it still feels nice to cool off and all, but it’s just boring. I guess you can only play so many games of Marco Polo.
You’d be surprised - if anything, the prices on the cards that were expensive a couple of years ago have gone up.
Me, I financed law school when I sold my Magic cards the first time.* I didn’t start picking it up again until it turned out that my husband (then my fiance) used to play and had quit some years previous. We picked it up again at the same time as a couples activity.
Why, yes, we are dorks, thank you. But we’re happily married dorks who spend every Saturday afternoon participating in a shared hobby
*For any who know MtG, this would be right at Ice Age, and the collection in question included at least 6 copies each of all 9 power and two-and-a-half playsets of dual lands. I got nearly $60K for the lot of it.
sadly, my intrest has fallen off from my hobbies. Three years ago, I was completely passionate about both of them. I followed new product releases; I discussed trends and fashions in the hobby with others; I bored my husband with all the talk until he could spew it back to me. I even thought I needed to make my hobbies my business and make money with them.
These days, I still participate, but not with the same passion. I do a bit here and there when I feel like it, but not obsessively. My hobbies are actually relaxing now.
House plants. Used to be devoted to them. Would never just pitch the “pups” - would always find a pot and start a new plant. Had so much aloe at one time if you came over you had to leave with one or two. Then I got a cat. And a dog. And another dog. And a baby. And another baby. Plants took a back seat. Still have 10 or 12 but that is enough now.
Hmmm, ther eare lots of things I no longer get passionate about but I’m not sure if it’s age or other external forces like changing technologies.
Like most people music, to some extent. I still keep up with new music but I make an effort. It’s really easy to just listen to the same old stuff you already know you love. I only see a show every couple of months nowdays. I worked at a record store for years but I think I jsut got tired of avidly following the scene.
Reading. I used to read anything. Now I have to force myself to read the paper and I don’t read more than a novel a month. (OTOH, I spend a lot of time reading online so that may be what’s changed)
Movies and TV. I see maybe three movies a year and I don’t keep up with what’s currently on TV. Although that maybe due to the fragmentation of TV and the fact that you can always pick something up on DVD so there’s no urgency.
Feeling like a dork in public. I don’t really care what people think and I finally learned that if you can just laugh it off, it’s no big deal anyway.
I actually care more about fashion now than I used to because I finally have the money to afford nice things. But I don’t dress to impress men, I dress for myself.
Concerts are definitely no longer important to me. Why spend $100 to see Fleetwood Mac play in diapers when I can listen to them at their best at home?
My IMAGE. I was a goth in high school, and while I did give that up before I went to college I was always a bit obsessed with looking “different” in every way: clothes, makeup, jewelry, hair. Nowadays I just want to see something I like when I look in the mirror. I still goth it up a bit every now and then but it’s more of a stroll down memory lane than anything else.
I just got to a point where playing cards was incompatible with my lifestyle choices. I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle of having them and sold the whole bunch. This was a loooong time ago. I have no idea what is going on with them anymore. I presume that my top pieces could fetch small fortunes by now. Or maybe they aren’t worth pennies. No idea.
As for the question of what’s taking the place of those old interests, I am married with two kids. I am into trains sets, cooking, home improvement and trying real hard to make some sense of girl fashion. Doing very well on the first three.
Several years ago, I was an aloe pusher too. I had dozens of pots. The damn things grew and reproduced so fast! Now I don’t have a single aloe to my name.
In other news, an adorable 25 year old at work says I need to party, frequent nightclubs, have casual sex… I tell him: “I’m 52. You need to do those things. Let’s have this conversation again in 25 years.”
I also do not collect books the way I used to because they are a pain in the buttocks to pack up and move every couple years. I currently don’t even have bookshelves to hold most of my library.
NJ Kef, I can’t believe how completely disinterested I have become in going out and partying on a Saturday night. Part of it is that I get physically sick if I stay up too late now, but mostly I just want to have a quiet night in, or a quiet dinner and then a quiet night in. A loud, expensive, crowded meat market bar sounds like hell to me now. Other things I care less about have been mentioned already - being cool, looking perfect (never was too much into those, frankly). I care less about age differences, except when people are much younger than I am, because they can be so poorly-informed at young ages. One thing I am caring less about all the time is finding my perfect career - some of us will just be marginal workers all our lives, and that’s okay.
I’m kinda surprised at how much I’m still interested in new music. My husband and I both are (we both love discovering a new band or song, or new album by an old band), and we didn’t realize that most people our age aren’t listening to the same stuff we are (I just recently discovered a guilty pleasure - Justin Timberlake ).
