How do you really feel/ think about getting older/aging?

27 comments

1. It feels good. It’s good to be an old lady. I don’t want to compete with anyone for anything. I dont want to follow trends, find friends, or care about social inertactions/situations . I want to be an old grandma. And treat other ppl like my kids and grandkids. Too tired and drained tbh

2. Its happening whether i like it or not, so I might as well roll with it

3. I am excited about things still to come – becoming a parent and then seeing my children get older etc (and retiring haha!!), I’m looking forward to getting more mature and maybe even one day reaching that idgaf point where you don’t care what people think (hope I get there)

   But I also feel sad sometimes that I’m no longer a ‘young person’ – not that I’m OLD but I feel very disconnected from young people today and like I don’t really understand them. And I also don’t really like seeing myself get older appearance wise.

   And long term, I’m scared by the thought of my parents getting older and getting sick, needing care etc. And I also worry about my own health in the future, or just generally hate the thought of losing my ability to look after myself or forgetting things etc

   That sounds like a lot of thoughts and feelings but none of this is a BIG deal to me. Getting older is just inevitable (or better than the alternative??) so I just accept it!

4. The only issue I have with it is everything hurts now. I do not understand how just sitting too long makes my back hurt.

   Other than that I am loving not wearing heels, I love not wearing makeup. I love not spending hundreds in salons and spas. I love I can walk down the street and I’m invisible. The world is no longer creepy, hostile and threatening. I don’t get cat called. I can be polite to a stranger without them thinking it’s flirting and hitting on me.

   I love how much money I have. I’m looking forward to retirement and spending it all the most frivolous way possible, ensuring I die penniless.

5. I’m fine with it. I’ve been getting older and aging since the moment I arrived on this planet. I’ve understood that people who are fortunate are born, live full lives for as many years as they have available to them, and then die. Getting old/aging has never seemed negative to me. It’s just life. Either you are dead or you are still living and aging. I prefer living and aging to that alternative. I adore, love, and value my elder friends and family members. I have no issues with hopefully someday becoming an elder myself. I’m already 46. I’m fully in the mid-life times, and it’s lovely to be here.

6. Grateful. Just wish I didn’t have new aches and pains with each added year.

7. I love my 40s. So much better than my awkward and low self-esteem-filled 20s and 30s. I found my style, my stride, my sexy and adventurous side when I turned 40. Couple that with confidence and living my life on my terms, not caring about others opinions and it makes for a huge sense of freedom and contentment.

8. It’s a privilege not everyone gets, so I’m embracing it.

9. one of my closest work friends is 56, i’m 21. i really look up to her and enjoy hearing all her life stories. we had lunch after work once and discussed a few things when she looked me in the eyes and said “you have so much to experience and so much life to live. you have no idea, but you really have a lot to look forward too”.

   since then i haven’t looked at getting older as a bad thing. i feel like a little kid wanting to grow up again. life has so much to offer you no matter the age. i can’t wait to embrace it.

10. I was a bit shocked when I got my first grey hair, it was sooner than I expected. But I’m tired of the narrative that women should make themselves look as young as possible, so I mostly only worry about aging from a health perspective.

11. I’ve decided to stay young until 50 and after that I’ll reassess the situation decide, whether I turn into a swamp witch as nature intended or keep putting effort into maintaining my look. My mind will always stay young, so clearly the dissonance between my mind and my body will grow bigger over time, but it is what it is. I’m just going to keep being thankful to my body for allowing me to do the things I do. Not everyone is as lucky as most of us are. Yet we rarely ever appreciate it to the fullest.

12. I hate it.

    I was never pretty, not even when I was young, and I keep aging faster than people around me, which is really just embarrasing. I tried cheeeing myself with “at least I won’t LOSE beauty with age, since I never had it”
    I had not anticipated turning into some kind of zombie-lookalike contest winner.

    The people that don’t mind aging seems to be the ones who age gently, stay quick witted, and human-looking.

    Me? Wrinkly, saggy, balding, body failing more each day, everything hurts, I don’t seem to get fully restored after injuries, and everything is slowly just falling down the drain as a constant reminder that I will never get to be the pretty girl, or the beautiful woman, or the accomplished and successful, or even the strong or capable one – bad genetics suck.

    Knowing all women in my family so far have developed Alzheimers isn’t helping either. It’s basically a waiting game, racing to reach as many of my goals as possible before I no longer _can_.

    I am not looking forward to being locked up in a body that is constantly in pain, and can’t do the things I enjoy, or can’t even handle my job. It sucks.
    The alternative, as in “dying” is obviously worse – but that doesn’t in any way mean I have to enjoy becoming old, weak, and useless.

13. It feels good, at 40 nobody expects shit anymore. No kids, no career or marriage.

14. I plan to lean into my inner Nanny Ogg, and age as disgracefully and enjoyably as I can manage.

15. I’m anxious and sad over it, and I’ll be getting botox and fractional laser as soon as I start seeing the first fine lines show up. I also get super down whenever I see a woman in her 30’s ask for how to “dress for her age”, because it makes me feel like I have to abandon my current style of fashion, so that people don’t look at me like some sad old hag who tries to dress like a teen, even though I don’t at all take that into account but it’s legitimately what I think looks good. Ugh.

16. In all honesty, I don’t feel good about it. I had depression and other mental health issues in my younger years and no luck with relationships, friendships and dating. Now I feel like I wasted my best years. I’m in my mid twenties now, still don’t have a social circle or a relationship, so aging makes me even more stressed out.

17. I’m 53. It really doesn’t bother me. I work with youngsters 20 to 30 years old and don’t feel like I’m older than them until I look in the mirror. All that gets me at times is the aches and pains.

18. Sure beats the alternative, being dead.

19. It’s weird. I just turned 38, but I don’t feel any different than when I was a teenager. It’s sometimes shocking to realise a fun thing I did was x amount of years ago already, and that time is flying by. I feel I haven’t accomplished any of the things that my peers have, which also doesn’t help. People still think I’m younger than I am though, but that might also be bc I still dress like a teenager and dye my hair in funky colours.

    My grandma is 81 now and she’s still doing great, and I really hope I get to age the way she does, without too many ailments and a zest for life. Her younger siblings haven’t all been so lucky, and that terrifies me. What if my mind starts to go, or I can’t move without help anymore?

    I know aging happens to all of us, so I just have to roll with the punches, but seeing loved ones deteriorate is really making me reevalute my life.

20. I’m terrified. I’ve had multiple severe concussions as well as knee and back injuries. Having spent so much of my life incapacitated I don’t have it in me to exist with my body failing and no hope of recovery.

21. It is what it is.

22. I am truly okay with that , cant wait to be not looked at.

    Also it’s a privilege not everyone gets…

23. Honestly, it scares me, but I also know it’s inevitable and worrying about it won’t stop time. Also I do look a few years younger than I am (I’m 26 but people usually think I’m 20/21) so that’s comforting. At this point I’ve decided that no matter how old I get, I’m gonna be myself and have fun and not panic about where I’m “supposed to be” in life at a certain age.

24. Sometimes it feels good, sometimes I feel like I’m running out of time and have accomplished literally nothing.

25. I don’t think nothing about it. It’s a normal process.

26. I am fully embracing the crone.. I think she is fantastic and fabulous 🤩

27. I have a history of neurodegenerative disorder in my family … and the only value I feel I have is my mind/problem solving skills… so I’m Terrified