I love this thread, I sometimes am afraid of aging, but I realize now in my 30’s that I do like it better than my 20’s, so hopefully the trend will continue. I am keeping all the good advice in the back of my mind.
(However, we did start putting money away in our early 20’s, and now half of it is gone thanks to stock market decline, so that is rather discouraging…might not seem like a lot when I am 65 but that money was a big sum to us at this point in our lives 
)
There’s a - to my mind - wonderful interview with old CG on YouTube(BBC excerpt) where he is discussing this point of view. If you live as if you would always live, “then you live properly”. About three minutes in.
I am 65 and play racquetball about 8 hours a week. We play more doubles than we used to but I still play singles with the young tourney players. I walk my dogs in the park every day. I do not feel old .
My wife is 10 years younger. She is getting old.She does zero exercise and has gained about 80 lbs. Her feet are sore,her back is stiff and she naps and sleeps a lot.
I am in my 20s too and I have thought a lot about getting older…especially now that I am old enough to look at teenagers as being “kids” and to be shocked by
how much time has already passed in my life (it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that I was a little kid playing in my parents’ backyard, yet here I am now thinking about taking on a mortgage of my own). I’m surprised that others don’t think about it much.
I guess I don’t see old age as something to fear since unfortunately many people in my family have died young, so I see it as a privilege to get to enjoy seeing your hair go gray.
I meet a lot of older folks in my work (I’m in health care) and it’s really quite interesting how much variation there is between individual people at older ages.
I’ve met amazingly alert, healthy 80-something people, and yet I’ve met people in their 50s that were already acting very “old” and frail. A person’s attitude and activity level definitely do make a difference.
I’m 57. The worst part of it is not being able to get up the trail as easily as I used to. And sleeping on the ground is much tougher than it once was. Everything hurts - back and joints - almost all the time. But I’ve kind of gotten used to that.
As they say, it’s not the years, it’s the mileage. And I’ve got a lot of bumpy miles on the odometer. 
But I’m not “old.” For me, “old” has always been ten years older than my current age. So I won’t be old for quite a while yet.
Sounds familiar. For me, the only parts that don’t hurt are numb.
And keep in mind, as the Irish say, “I’m still on the right side of the sod.” 
At least while you can still add and subtract.
Ten years from tomorrow…
I’m ‘only’ 42. But I’ll take 42 over 23 anyday. You stop caring so much about stupid stuff.
I’m 25 and I’m actually looking forward to being old. It’ll mean I’ve been around that long and seen that much stuff. My grandfather is 92 (And in awesome shape. People think he is at most 70) and I’m just awed when I think about the things he has seen and done. Now I’ve *felt *old quite a bit, but thats because I worked with kids. Nothing will make you feel old before your time like a kid.
I’m going on 55 and have given in to old age. I am bipolar and the meds I have taken for 10 years have given me tremors, chronic dry mouth, bad gums, constipation among others. I look forward to death, without sounding too morose. I have had both hips replaced and cannot play tennis or ski, which were my two favorite sports. I am able to swim but usually don’t. I do agree with whoever said it’s great not to be hyper about all the small things, I am mellower than I was even 10 years ago (see meds above for possible explanation). I am currently searching for a job, having been laid off twice in the past 15 months, and it sucks to be my age and have to sell myself. I am closer to the friends who stuck around, and have just decided to cut loose the ones who e-mail me twice a year. I have a premonition that I will die soon, hard to shake that kind of feeling. Yes, I am currently depressed. I am irritated by certain things, couldn’t care less about others. Does that answer your question? Now get off my lawn…
I’m 66 these days. Been retired for four years now and try as I might, I can’t find a damn thing wrong with retirement. If we hadn’t planned for it financially it would be different, but there’s enough money.
I’m lucky in that my health is good. I ride horses several times a week, sometimes for hours at a time. I do all the stuff necessary to manage a livestock farm and run a chain saw enough to cut all my own firewood and sell a bunch every winter.
I’m in better physical shape now than at any time since I got out of the military service. Being retired allows time and opportunity to do fun stuff outside instead of being sedentary behind a desk.
I wish I could have got this retirement gig at about age 25, but I’ll take it now.
My wife is a young un’ of 62 and she’s had some health issues. Bad arteries and high cholesterol run in her family and she’s got some joint pain, so her opinion of these Golden Years is less positive than mine.
And then there’s grandkids. They are great, and usually you can send 'em back to their parents when you’ve had enough. We have kept two of them for a couple of years each at different times, but that’s another story…