Age is a Number

Photo courtesy of Facebook

I saw this comic on my Facebook news feed and immediately had to share it. It made me laugh! And then it made me think. And then I realized – gasp! – I’m over 30! I’m in that unfortunate in-between stage where I can’t claim the wisdom of being old, but nor can I any longer lay claim to the ignorance of youth. I’m (gulp) creeping up on being middle-aged! (Truthfully, I’m not really sure when exactly that magical period begins, but I know I’m close.)

Sometimes, when I look in the mirror, I do double-takes. Who is that person? I haven’t physically changed that much, but my face definitely no longer exemplifies the Noxema Girl complexion that I used to be known for in my youth. My eyes are just that much more…tired. And what are those things that have appeared by my eyes in certain lights? I won’t say the word. I refuse.

I don’t have a fear or dread of getting older. It isn’t that I mind the inevitable passage of time. It is just that I seemed to have missed it. It happened all of a sudden. I lived my life, enjoying lots of adventures and experiences, and then wammo! I was old. Don’t scoff. Thirty-three isn’t old and I know it. But it is the oldest that I have ever been, so it feels old to me. Correction, it sounds old to me. Much like the comic states, I still feel young.

As a youngin’, I was always under the impression that people who moaned and whined about aging were actually upset over the missed opportunities and regrets. Now, I’m more of the mind that they have a more concrete grasp on the finiteness of age. Once you turn twenty-nine, you never turn twenty-nine again… Unless you are my grandmother, who I’m fairly certain managed to turn twenty-nine until I was about seventeen, at which point she may have upgraded to thirty-nine. My Nana also happens to be one of those people who can pull that particular trick off. Without knowing the year she was born, it would be a monumental challenge to guess her age. Way to go Nana on looking so amazing for your age - at every age!

While aging isn’t such a bad thing, I have no doubt that as my body ages, my heart and mind will continue to exist in perpetual youth. Except for when I am surrounded by actual youth. At which point, I vow to be happy to have safely reached my ripe old age and the maturity that goes along with.