Years Young
There was a line in an interview with Judith Voirst that caught my eye and stayed with me. When asked if she associated herself with a different age in her mind, she responded, “I feel neither younger nor older than 94, but 94 now feels younger than I’d expected.”
When I read that line, I was still 50, and I felt the same way. 50 (or 51) feels younger than I expected when I thought about the age as recently as 40. Meaning, I’m not talking about thinking that 50 would feel old when I was 20. I’m saying that I thought 50 would feel old when I was just a few years away from turning 50. Now, 50 feels young, and I don’t really have an age that feels old. It’s weird how that mindset has sort of floated away with time.
I also thought this was a solid philosophy:
My friends and I love celebrating birthdays—ours and each other’s, and more than once, and not only on the actual birthday. When someone says they’re sorry they missed my birthday because it’s a month later, I say, “No you didn’t. We can still celebrate.”
What age do you think of as “old,” if any?
4 comments
One of my friends gave me a birthday present in October this year.
I am often feeling old at 55. But then I also don’t feel any older than 25. Maybe someday I will feel like a full adult, but I doubt it.
I am 48 and don’t feel like I thought I would feel. 48 sounded old to me but I still feel like I don’t have things figured out. I do however feel old when I’m at my daughter’s elementary school with all the moms who had their kids in their 20s.
I agree with celebrating whenever! Spreading out the fun makes more fun and more joy and, for me, I can really enjoy myself fully when I haven’t had a celebration in a while.
I love that. It is so strange how relative time is, and how people you thought were old when you were younger are the same people you think are young later. I’m thinking of when I found a bunch of elementary school class photos and was like, “oh good gracious, I thought Ms. Colony was so old, but she’s clearly way younger than me now in this picture.” And the people in ads or youtube that I identify with are steadily growing older as I do. I don’t have the same existential dread of 50 that I did for 40, but maybe there’s nothing tied to 50. Whereas 40 felt like a big deadline, or a cliff. 50 (next birthday!) feels like nothing but possibility.