"Inside every old person is a young person that wonders what the fuck happened".
When we're young, the world is full of opportunities. As we get older, the doors to those opportunities close, and fewer things seem possible.
The gap between how old you are and how old you think you are
61–70 of 194 posts
Re: The gap between how old you are and how old you think you are
#62Tendons. Once beautiful, stretchy creatures that probably now resemble a curmudgeon being asked to be nice to a neighbor. Been playing soccer with my soccer mad 8 yr old. I too was that guy. Brings me back and I am so much better at technique now but boy oh boy does my hip and lower back hurt the next day!!!
> lower back hurt the next day
"Next day" makes me think it's just DOMS.
Re: The gap between how old you are and how old you think you are
#63I've felt about 22 for decades. Probably until my mid forties, I felt I was only about 19. That leads quite often to the situation where you are looking in shock at some elderly, bald person in the mirror while thinking "Who's that old bastard?". Or the sudden realisation "My God! I'm only two and a bit years off 80!" As the article says, there's a difference between the age you feel you are 'in your head' and the ag…
Jukebox the Ghost in 2012, In my lungs I still feel young But my body won't play along I'm thinking this must not be where we Belong. Alan Kay was talking somewhere, but I don't have the link, about how a lot of his success in his youth had to do with the research community around him, and I think he was asked a question about how that sort of thing changes as you grow older... He replied that the combination of grow…
> [...] he had to stop looking for validation at the "quality of my results" and instead had to feel pride at the "quality of my effort." Something I have kept in mind.
Along the same lines, is the realisation that we tend to judge (?) others by the outcome of their efforts, but we judge ourselves by the outcome of our thoughts. I've read that somewhere, certainly more eloquently put, but it also stuck - esp. afrer having kids.
Re: The gap between how old you are and how old you think you are
#64George Bernard Shaw: "Youth is wasted on the young."
Re: The gap between how old you are and how old you think you are
#65A mentor told me that he felt like he was about twenty until after his first heart attack and bypass surgery.
After that, he said, he felt like he had aged a ton.
Re: The gap between how old you are and how old you think you are
#66I still feel like the upstart who barely knows what he is doing.
The only difference is the people around me. I used to be surrounded by people I looked up to, who seemed to know everything.
But now everyone around me has become mysteriously less and less competent and they're acting like I am the established authority, which just shows how little they must know!
Re: The gap between how old you are and how old you think you are
#67After I turned 50 I mentioned to my Mom that I still felt like I was in my early 20s. She said she felt the exact same way, despite being in her 70s. That was the first time I realized that the discrepancy between how old you are and how old you think you are might be universal. It also made me wonder if this might be why surveys show that in general men prefer women who are in their early 20s. Perhaps men are basing…
[flagged]
Re: The gap between how old you are and how old you think you are
#68I wonder if others here found their mental age aging more rapidly after certain life events?
The wake of aging parents transitioning (death, stroke/care home) has without doubt accelerated my mental age, which in turn has changed what I'd call my horizon. When younger and prior to said events, the horizon was far away; time enough for everything/anything. Not so much anymore, much greater sense of uncertainty.
Re: The gap between how old you are and how old you think you are
#69What's news, pussycat. If we talk about how I feel, I think I'll be forever 30; that was around the time in my life when I had the most friends, experienced the most, traveled the most and had the most fun. But then, last year I turned 50, and the realization that I have a lot more behind me than ahead is a thought that lives rent free in my mind now.
And for me, the rent ahead is not so "free!" Making money was ego and self-discovery when young. It's all-too-practical now with a degree of urgency I'd not ever felt before.
Re: The gap between how old you are and how old you think you are
#70Curious how old other formerly closeted queer folks feel (particularly those who came out as adults). I have felt 30 since I hit puberty. I imagine it's from being hyper vigilant about policing my own behavior and body language.