Do you feel old?

Lyndylou, that sort of thing can make you laugh or run to the mirror!! I feel the same as I always have, sometimes more sensible thanks to life experiences. The only time I felt old was looking in the mirror after recovering from flu, rapid weight loss due to not being able to eat didn't help and I was shocked at the old crone I had become! Fortunately it didn't last long. I understand what posters say about passport photos, I look like my mother in mine....I'm mid 60s and lucky enough to be fit and active, long may it continue.

I was in a large sports shop today with DD and DGS. While they were trying on shoes I went to look at the choice of sports bags he needs for a school trip. When I came back DGS said he was about to ask the store to put out a tannoy stating "Has anyone seen my Nana, she is an old lady, she is 66 and she has frail hair". I'm not sure what frail hair is but obviously the large amount of money I spend every 6 weeks to keep my hair looking youthful is totally wasted.

Its not me, its other people. Got a real shock when I recently met someone I have known, off and on, for nearly 40 years. He is my age and was always very attractive, white teeth, glinting smile and plenty of girlfriends. He remained as attractive and as successful as ever with women right into his early 70s.

It is a year or two since I last saw him and was really shocked as this florid, slightly overweight man with a lined face came into the room, he is now getting very deaf and the edge has gone off his intellect, the smile and the teeth are still there, but now the first impression is of an old man with a nice smile. The magnetism has entirely gone.

It reminded me of how (relatively) young we were when we first met and just how long ago that was and how old we both are now.

I'm just keeping busy so old age doesn't catch up with me - I hope!

What does 'feeling old' mean? There's a balance to be struck, I think. I've been thinking over the past 20 years. I was made redundant, but did an ESOL qualification which enabled me to work with refugee and asylum speakers, all desperate to learn English and know more about our culture. I downsized from my nice 4-bed house to a 2-bed end terrace but moved to a much more friendly community and made new friends, joing the U3A and the local NWR. I gained four more delightful GC, albeit at a distance that makes visiting less frequent than I'd like. At 70, my family gave me a good party with many old friends, a celebration of all the events of my life which, when I came to think about it, had been pretty eventful. Better to do it then than at a 'wake' when I couldn't be there to enjoy it! I've had a balloon flight and a flying lesson as well as some great family holidays since I retired. So I've had to give up Ramblers holidays, thanks to dodgy joints, but then again, thanks to the NHS, those dodgy joints have been replaced successfully. Although I gave up my Council seat, I was able to use some of that experience as a CAB adviser.
So how is the balance sheet doing? I'm sure there are things that I've missed out, but on balance, can I say that I feel 'old'? Physically yes, undoubtedly: bits and pieces are wearing out, but on every other score, I think age is treating me pretty well.

I used not to feel old but was recently sacked by my headmaster at school because he declared that 30+ was too old to work with teenaged pupils in school!!! Miss the job that I loved for so long, DON’T miss headmaster....

Purple daffodil weren't you lovely! (I'm sure you still are!)

Didn't feel old until I had a fall some 12 years ago which triggered a whole host of medical problems. Most of the time I am still 20 at heart, sometimes 16, but now am aware that I am getting past my use-by date (70 next month).

When I look in the mirror - yes
When I need to use my stick - yes
When I'm pottering about doing my own thing - no

Until recently I have been full of beans but now I have knee trouble and crutches I suddenly feel old.....

DH just told me that feeling that you are getting old is merely feeling your mortality - so that told me then!

Chewbacca, how I agree with what you've just said. I was reared with statements like 'you have to finish the job' or 'you can't leave that little bit'. Fact is nowadays I can and do. If I've erred with a project I thought I fancied, I simply bin it. If I've tired in the midst of some chore, I leave it irrespective of how little remains to be done. This has not been easy to achieve as I was lovingly but thoroughly taught. However, bliss is the result. Yet another onus lifted. Don't think I've done much by way of discarding people (or they me!) but maybe I've been lucky there. Yes, retirement has so many plusses for me. Resisted it for a long time. Silly me

Thank you for your kind remark about my long straight hair KatieK. Perversely I always envied people who had wild curls and thought mine looked like a packet of spaghetti.?

I've found a bonus with getting older. When I was younger, I would stick with whatever I'd started (job, relationship, project whatever) because it had been dinned into me that "quitters achieve nothing". As a subsequence, I've wasted so much time being bored with jobs; unhappy in relationships that were not meant to be and struggled to get my ahead around subjects that didn't actually interest me enough. No longer! Now I'm entirely happy that I only spend time with those whose company I enjoy; if I'm not enjoying something I started, I'm comfortable to stop and try something else. And I'm only working a few hours a week, in a job I enjoy, and I finally feel that this is my time. I'm happy with this stage of my life.

I so agree with you Baggs and have always felt that it is such a bonus to actually be old.

I understand what you mean also MagicWriter as I too have visited that very museum!

Feeling old isn't just the numbers though is it, surely? We are all different and some folk certainly seem forever young whilst others are like my own father who decided he was old and my goodness he was definitely old.
I suppose you could say that it was all in his head but then the 'all in the head' thing is not that simple and I find it difficult to find an explanation. If you think that you can think yourself into feeling old I suppose that could well happen but is that not really a bit of depression?
I have days when I feel very good inside and feel that I could dance around the house for joy but I just can't physically do it as I used to, unfortunately. It doesn't make me feel old, just a bit surprised that I can't make it happen and then frustrated. Is that what is meant by feeling old then?
I don't agree or think that one can equate being fit and active with not feeling old either. I sincerely hope that those upthread who equate the two actually stay as fit and well as they say they are but "it ain't necessarily so".
On the other hand thinking positively certainly gives one that little bit of extra bounce even if only 'in the head' so it is a good idea to count your blessings and be thankful.
I don't think there is a 'one size fts all' as we are all so very different, unique in fact, as are our circumstances and life experiences, so what works for one may or may not work or be so for another.
I suppose that was a meander through a few thoughts but what do you think?

That was my Grandma’s fave saying Baggs many years ago, a tolerant ‘ it takes all sorts’ to which my less tolerant Grandad would say ‘ I don’t like all sorts’!

Hmm, thanks, bluegal. Your post does explain it well if I've understood you to mean that you don't feel more grown up now than you did at twenty. I definitely do—less naive, more understanding, stuff like that. Takes all sorts, as the saying goes! ?

I felt pretty young in my 60s but now at 71 I definitely feel old. I have polymyalgia rheumatica which is a self limiting illness, but it has knocked the stuffing out of me due to fatigue. I wonder if the the old fitter me will return I do hope so. However I’m grateful not to have a more serious illness.

Will be 72 in a few days time. Had my first grandchild last year and just hope I grow up faster than she does! (Have always felt immature.) My friends have noticed I have a real spring in my step since becoming friends with a charming gentleman. (I have been widowed for a number of years.) Life is currently good and I am planning to be around till I am 100, health allowing!

I'll be 70 in May. There, I've said it. I hate hate hate the thought of it, as to me it sounds old. I don't feel my age although I probably look it; I'm not on any medication and apart from the occasional creak and groan I am fit and healthy. I've acquired a PT in order to remain so for as long as possible. I try to look at the positives. My oldest friend of 68 years standing has MS and never complains. Another has COPD, 3 others have cancer, so I count my lucky stars. My Aunt tells me I am just a young'n and 'just wait til you get to my age then you can complain' (she's 103). I find the role reversal with my 3 daughters slightly strange - from mother to 'child', but age is what you make it. The clock ain't going to go into reverse so I just have to face the music and get on with it ......

I got some new glasses today. I'm thinking of taking them back. When I look in the mirror an old wrinkly person looks back at me. My old glasses were much better. The person I saw in the mirror had hardly any wrinkles at all.

Walking sticks can make you look and feel older. I have had to use one out of doors for the last 4 years and make a rule to stand up straight when using it - it is incredibly tempting to lean over forwards on the stick. Head up high is the rule!

I’ve changed a great deal, and am pleased to have done so. Physical maturity shows I’m beginning to have less energy, with aches and pains, but intellectually and emotionally I’m wiser, stronger, and much more confident.
So I don’t feel 25 ‘inside’ or whatever age one imagines was the peak. I feel every bit that I’m 67 and am completely content with that.

Coming up to my 76th birthday in a couple of months time - when I'm fit and well I don't think about my age, I just get on with enjoying the nice lifestyle I've developed since retiring at 68. But when I'm ill I do have to say I start feeling my age.....don't seem to bounce back so quickly from colds and flu like I used to in my 40's and 50's.

I`ll be 75 in a few weeks, but in my head I still feel like the shy teenager that I was many moons ago. But then all the aches and pains make me feel old, then it`s all confirmed when I look in the mirror! The worst bit is catching sight of myself in a shop window..........URRRGH!!