I turned 40 this year and noticed a few gray hairs, but shrugged them off. I took a few classes at a community college, surrounded by 20-somethings and their newfangled slang and TikTok “tea”, but that wasn’t what did it either.
Then I ordered a shower stool online, hoping to make it easier to trim my toenails in the bath. Bending down is hard these days. Once I unboxed it and put it the shower… THAT’s when I looked into the bathroom mirror and saw myself in a nursing home, struggling to bathe and poop on my own. Eeks.
My one tiny sliver of hope? At the kickboxing gym, I can still sort-of keep up with the youngins, at least in speed and power if not stamina. I might not last more than ten seconds at a time, but I’ll make every second count, dammit!!
When did you first think to yourself, “Gee whiz, mercy me, I ain’t no spring chicken no more!”
What makes you think, “Well, at least I can still do that”?
This past year with the new handcycle:
350 miles in a week
3672 miles in a 100 day span.
I’ll be right about 10,175 miles for the year.
These are all lifetime records for any velocipede.
I’m 63 (male).
I still sleep through the night without the need to urinate.
I have retained full sexual function (and drive) without performance enhancing drugs.
On the other hand, lots of things make me feel old. When I have to get up off the floor for some reason. If I try to read a newspaper. And when I notice how thin my hair has become. Mostly I feel old when I hear what music is popular these days.
A search for threads with “Feel old” in the title turns up 39 threads. Here they are in newest to oldest order: SDMB Search.
I’ve said my piece on being old in those other threads enough times. What’s novel about this thread is the second half.
So what make me feel young? At age 66 my obviously a bunch younger semi-hot GF is a biggee. And all the various fun we can get up to, whether in private or in public.
What’s funny when we’re out together is the two kinds of looks I get from women. It’s either the subtle eyeroll / look of disgust or it’s the thoughtful “Hmmm, I wonder what he’s got that she wants and should I want some of that too?” It’s real fleeting then their decorum / mask reasserts itself but it’s great for that bit of a second.
Still being lean, fitting into tight jeans, having most of my hair, being able to go outside and play most days; those are all youth-enhancing.
My motto has become: “You’re only as old as you behave.” Which includes a footnote “(only as old as you’re able to behave).” Plenty of people have the bad fortune to be unable to behave youthfully. I’m sorry for their misfortune. But many, many more choose to behave elderly despite not yet being there. IMO that’s a self-inflicted wound; don’t be that guy/gal.
40 really isn’t that old. When I was about 41 (11 years ago) my wife was pregnant with our first child and I signed up for a Spartan obstacle course race with a bunch of my (mostly younger) coworkers at the tech company where I worked at the time. When COVID came out when I was 48, I was jogging up to 8 miles a few times a week (mostly because there wasn’t much else to do).
I guess what makes me feel “old” (at 52) is seeing yet another cycle of news and pop culture stuff that everyone seems so excited/worried about as if it’s the first time it’s ever happened.
Or calculating actual dates for stuff like 9/11 (23 years) or the 2008 financial crisis (16 years), then it seems like a long time.
My joints are starting to go snap, crackle, and pop; I’m starting to need reading glasses; my tinnitus is getting louder.
I power cleaned 135 this morning; I can still do 15 strict pullups; I’m in far better shape at 47 than I was at 35, and far far better shape than a lot of my coworkers who are in their twenties; I still play tabletop Sci-Fi board games.
Tripler
“I am old enough to know better, but young enough to do it anyway.” -Me
I think I first felt old at age 40, when I was feeling just kind of lousy for an extended period of time. I finally went to the doctor, which led to a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.
What makes me feel young is playing games, particularly role-playing games, with my friends. It’s a hobby I’ve had since I was 17, and even if I’m feeling tired or run-down on a given day, sitting at the table with friends, and rolling dice for a few hours, sets the wayback machine for me.
Not first, but most recently, as in just a few minutes ago, someone on reddit used the phrase “dad rock” and when I asked for clarification, he said “late 90’s/early 2000s”.
About 20 years ago, I was having a conversation with a colleague who was about 15 years younger than me. She said something about “they were playing oldies music – like, Madonna!”
At which point I picked up my cane, shook it at her, and said “get off my lawn, kid!”
I’ve shared this before. The numbers may be off but you get the idea…
One day at work, at lunch, the topic was how old everyone was. The new-ish guy next to me said he was born in 1997. When he said that, I mentioned that I had already been at that job 10 years when he was born.
He looked at me as if I had said I’d fought in the Civil War.
When I was an IT honcho I and some of my crew attended a convention. 4 of us went to dinner together. Me, my dev department head, a lead, and a sharp newbie.
Talk turned to our ages after the 4th fellow ordered a soda; not a beer as the first 3 of us had. Turns out we were 50, 40, 30, & 20 respectively. Amazingly round numbers.
Our noob was a smart dude w great potential. He was amazed to learn that computers had not been invented just 10 years ago when he was learning about them as a precocious kid. By thn I’d been in and out of the biz for over 30 years. Much mutual incomprehension ensued. Such fun.
I’m 57 and male. So far I’ve been rather lucky for some reason: I don’t take any meds, I’m not in any pain, I’ve never had surgery, I don’t have any medical problems, no erectile problems, etc. I also don’t seem to have any problems with doing all the manual work here at home. (Right now, my daughter and I are insulating the interior of the barn, and it has a 10-foot ceiling.)
When the kids were small, I described for them the first arcade video game: Pong. They weren’t impressed with the fact that it was the first one. But their eyes got bid over: “No graphics! AT ALL!?!”
It’s the knee and the memory that makes me feel old. That and hearing my kids complain about being old.
Do dreams get boring as one ages? Not the sex dreams, but the spiked reality. Twenty years ago my dreamscapes were Chicago Colombian Exposition/Little Nemo in Slumberland Beaux Arts marvels. but last night I had a dream typical of late: I worked in a strip-mall office suite with beige drywall and brown paper-laminated particleboard desks, with 1990s taupe computers.
I used to think that it would be great if the afterlife was just like the land of our dreams. Now I can only look forward to 1991 Lincoln, Nebraska.
@Slithy_Tove I’ve kept a dream diary my whole life – I only record the particularly vivid or interesting ones, which have steadily become much rarer and less intense over time. So, yes, in my case.
In terms of the OP, to be honest it’s catching sight of myself in the mirror: who’s this fker with a puffy face, forehead and laugh lines following me around?
But less seriously, a couple of things:
I still use an mp3 player at the gym. I just prefer it to carrying (and risking) my phone. But watching a youtube video recently where the presenter was explaining what an mp3 player was, as a slice of history, definitely made me feel old and out of touch.
A couple of circulation things. It hasn’t affected my ability to do sports or anything but, for example, let’s say I take off my socks or a hat and it leaves a ring where there was elastic. That ring can still be there half an hour later. I’ve also been unable to get a blood sample from my finger because I can’t collect anywhere near the required amount of blood
On the positive side is just the actual gym workout; my gym is near to a university so the majority of people there are half my age, or less (I’m 45). But I can lift more than most and have better muscle definition (yes, I know it’s because some of the people there are mere teenagers but don’t take this away from me!)
Came up at the workplace I started at the end of August. At 56, I’m far and away the oldest in the shop. Some of the guys were born after I graduated high school. I’ve got more years into my career than some of them have years on earth.
