"I feel old, now." Topic

Sometimes its not easy to find that our mental image of ourselves is not the same as reality.

While I know that I'm a forty something with two teenage kids, I'm still somewhere back in my early 30's (and probably acting like I'm in my early 20's) if I were to conjure up a mental image of myself.

Back in 1984, I discovered the Society for Creative Anachronism – a Medieval history/reenactment/social group and I was pretty active for about 14 years. I met my wife through the group and we both attended tournaments until other commitments – including home and family required our attention. I still manage to get out to events once in a while (once a year or so) and I keep in contact with friends online.

While I was out on an errand with my daughter, I saw the signs for a local event. So, with some free time on our hands, we went and checked it out. It was easy to recognize some friends I hadn't seen in at least five years – and a few others recognized me before I put names and faces together. And it was like years had melted away after we conversed. But, after helping a lady and her teen-aged daughter take down their sunshade after the wind broke part of the frame, I suddenly realized that I recognized her.

Much hugging ensued and we probably confused our offspring as we caught up with the news, but it occurred to both of us that the last time we'd seen each other was when she was maybe two or three years older than her 16-year-old is now.

Ouch.

Wyatt

That does suck. I'm at the stage where I can say "I haven't seen/heard/done that in nearly 20 years."

It is frightening the first time those words come out of your mouth.

And the first time I tell someone I've been driving longer than they have been alive when they are driving I'm going to have to give life a big rethink.

Aging sucks, but it is better than the alternative.

Welcome to the "old" club. I turn 41 tomorrow and the guys I regularly game with were discussing the 25th anniversary edition of Warhammer Fantasy. I told them that I still have my copy of the original game in very good shape and they reminded me that they weren't even born when that game was released. Ah, how the time flies!

Yah, there's suckage to be had in aging. I'm just past 32 or so and I can see a lot of the signs of getting old. But, I still FEEL like a teen. Dammit! I'm gonna be a teen until I die, I hope!

Age is a state of mind, right?

It is indeed.

I keep wondering how some of my friends seem to have aged while I stay the same…

I am 41 and greyer than my dad; I go to uni with 'kids' half my age; and I was pulled over by a police officer the other day who looked like she would have been born the same year I became a cop (I have been out a couple of years though). The signs all say that I am getting on.

However…

I still wear the same size clothes I did 20 years ago. I can still keep up with my kids when we play footy in the park. I am enjoying the same hobby I first became interested in as a teenager, only now I can afford bigger and better armies ;) Rattlehead and Doc X have the right of it – you are only as old as you feel!

Cheers
Paul.

Yep, I'm in that club too. I'm back in the university at 41, and in some clubs with undergrads less than half my age. The other day at archery practice they asked me how long I had been shooting, and that was my chance to say 'Longer than you've been alive'. It's an odd position, but judging by the reports here a fairly common feeling. Good stary about the SCA – I wonder what would happen if I went to the old barony where I grew up.

I'm going to turn 41 in a few days .
I'm also in a medievil re-enactment group and currently wondering if its easier to expand my maille hauberk to encompass my ever expanding muscular frame ,,,,,,,, or just lose some weight.
The upside is now i'm considered a veteran i can stand in the second rank of a shieldwall and push the younglings in front of me forward .

I have also noticed the odd grunting noises i'm making as i remove the armour or bend down to pick up a shield or whatever .

yes i feel old too , cheers tom

Hey I'm over fifty and believe me every day above dirt is a good day.

56 on May 1st – I can still remember…well, lots of things before most of you were born!

Ah, come on! 42 is the new 37!

At least that's wahat I keep telling my old self…

;-)

46 and still acting in my 20's. Don't slow down, don't give up, never surrender!

I see people all the time the same age as me getting old acting old and suffering for it.

I'm 46 myself. I've thought about some of the stuff you guys have mentioned. Some things I don't mind, like getting gray hair. But I do think about keeping my mind and body in good shape, especially as the years continue to fly by.

Anyone else notice how time goes by more quickly when you're older?

I guess one of my concerns at the moment is the amount of time that my job is taking up. My coworkers and I have had to put in a lot of overtime lately. That leaves me a whole lot less time and energy for painting, gaming, exercise, going to church on Wednesday nights, keeping in contact with family and friends, etc.

Don't get me wrong, because I am grateful to be employed and to have responsibilities. It's just that things outside of work are important too, and I would like to have more time for them.

One simple rule: Grow old disgracefully.
My paternal grandfather was a phillandering old tom cat will into his 80s. Im 39 now and contniue to emulate his principle as much as I can get away with. As far as I'm concernded 40 more years of debauchery and inappropriate behaviour await me.

Last year I went to a frat brother's Wedding, if anyone would have said twenty five years ago that we would be going to his (yes that Bro) wedding, one would have been laughed out the door. I get there and do not recognize a soul. The service goes on and start feeling kind of sorry for the Bro getting married because I am his only college friend and we were not that close. Then a dozen older adults drag themselves in, as I look at these people I am thinking, "a bunch of old farts, friends of the parents no doubt, probably to dim to find the place." Then I noticed one had something in a paper bag I looked up at his face and my next thought was "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo." It was rather depressing, but at the reception we all sat together and the past just melted away. I saw again the faces of pledges that looked too young to be in high school much less then college.

I am dreading the first time I find out that one of my students is the child of someone I had as a student. It is going to happen, though…

I've only been teaching 16 years, and I've already had the kid of one of my first students. Sigh.

But now I can say, when my kids ask how long I've been teaching, "longer than you've been alive".

Being 45 doesn't bother me. I doubt being 60 will bother me. Who knows, by then I might have managed to get more than two gray hairs.

I'm 59 (do I get some kind of prize?) and 60 doesn't look that old anymore! In fact 'old' is at least 10 years away and still will be when I'm 69!

I will second the motion that any day on the right side of the grass is a good day. Also that I don't think I'm any older than 21 (or weigh more than the 180 lbs. I was way back then).

I have to confess that cancer almost stopped the clock at 51 (the Non Hodgkins Lymphoma is gone but not forgotten)… so the rest of you take care of yourselves! Get your regular checkups… you never know what may crop up and early detection is 3/4 of the battle.

57 here. Old is someone your age +50%, so mid to late 80's in old to me.

Someone half your age or less is young, so cops in their 20's make me think of armed children.

Next year I hit the half century mark. However I feel very young and I think I am in pretty good shape for an Old Man. I like telling students that when I was born there were only 48 states in the Union.

Yeah, I remember black & white TV too. Knees and lower back problems now make me wish I'd been a little less enthusiastic about volleyball earlier. But there's nothing like becoming an instant step-mom (just add water) to keep you in touch with the young and restless! Oh, and marrying a more mature gentleman's good for the ego, too.

A round two score and ten here – and like my Mom use to say: "You're not old 'til you smell old".

I was recently contacted by my major flame from high-school – and my youngest daughter is older than she was when we dated. Funny thing is, we started visiting and it was like months since we'd seen each other last rather than decades.

It is weird to say "well, about 20 years ago, I . . . "

Also, I'm beginning to feel like a character from a 19th century novel when I say things like, "This was back in '79, long before the internet . . ."

Joined the Airforce at 30 which meant I had a more relaxed fitness standard but promptly beat almost all the 18 year olds just because I could. 8 years later and still holding a young mans fitness level.

I also went to an SCA event this past weekend (not a rare thing as I'm still active). Talked to a couple of fighters that weren't born the first time I put a steel helmet on my head and stood in the Tennessee sun. Saw an old squire brother of mine that I haven't seen in ages. Met his daughter whom I knew when she was in diapers and being carried… and met her son…… that felt like a brick to the head.

I can't believe I read through this entire morbid thread.

I went to my goddaughters 21st the other day. That made me fell a touch old.

I know at 53 that I'm getting old. This was really brought home at our first re-enactment event of the year back at Easter. We adjourned to the local pub to warm up (it was freezing cold in the UK over Easter, although we missed the snow that some parts of the country had) and were chatting about this and that with some of our newer recruits and I realised I'd been a member longer than they'd been alive. Then another of our members (in her 20s) really rubbed it in by pointing out that I'd known her parents longer than she had – having actually been on a group holiday with them in Germany when she was conceived!

I have a friend that when he started gaming with us, we all called him "The Kid" because he was 16, and the youngist of the group. The nickname stuck of course. Well, last month he mentioned that he wanted to start bringing his son to gaming since his son is the same age as when he started…

I turned 40 this year and started to have the "There's not enough time…" panic thoughts in my head. I have a five-year-old son and a lovely 41-year-old wife and every day that passes makes me think that there's just not enough time in the day to love them and go out and do all of the things that I want to do with them.

I had a conversation with my wife the night of my birthday (just this past January) and I asked her, "How is one supposed to behave at 40? Seriously--I feel like I'm in my 20s still--giddy about life and all of the things I like to do."

I see other 40 somethings around me that all seem like they have a stick up there. They've gone through some monstrous brain drain or something that won't allow them to be goofy once in awhile or to even *look* like they're having fun and enjoying life. What gives?

I don't feel old, but I do feel like there's not enough time…

Nothing wrong with being old. The long term commitment of raising keids is moving along OK, my health isn't great but it wasn't when I was young, and a lot of pressures just aren't there anymore.

Like Big Martin, I'm 53 this year, and I still enjoy my hobby. I've got used to having to square up against my son – he's 20 – but it is weird fighting against young guys 1/3 my age ……..

I don't train as much as I used to – 3 times a week in the day – but they say I'm still good enough to make them worried when we face off.

Mind you as an almost bald overweight guy, it is a lot of fun when some newb comes towards me full of vim and vigour only to wonder 30 seconds later why it's him on teh ground not me ….