Thoughts on Aging -
Feeling Young? Feeling Old?

A group of gals wrote about what made THEM feel young and what made them feel old... do you agree? Got more ideas to add to this Thoughts on Aging page?

How can we help ourselves to Feel GOOD (a blend of young minds and older bodies)??

Doreen wrote:

What makes me feel old?

-- When I hear people discussing the new technology, I-Pod’s etc.

-- When I get up in the morning and everything hurts.

-- When people want to be spontaneous, go here or there and I have already paced my day and run out of energy watts.

-- When I think I haven’t talked to someone for a long while and suddenly remember they have passed away.

I feel young when a crisis appears and I show up and do the needed thing. Afterwards I wonder how I managed that?

-- When I think of all the things I still want to do – one day and believe I still can.

-- When my husband and I laugh about the something we have always laughed about. We still disagree on things we have always disagreed on too. Then it is like time has stopped.

Sharon wrote:

I think I will start off on a positive note in how I feel young.

-- I feel young when someone pays me a compliment in how a new hairdo looks or when I am dressed up.

-- I feel young when I am agile enough to do some of the exercise machines at the gym that the young people can or I can keep up with the younger ones in one of the specialty classes and I am not out of breath.

-- I always feel young if I get an opportunity to dance a fast dance! (I love music).

-- I feel young when I have no problem hiking up to 5 miles (I love hiking and walking).

-- Even spending an evening with some girlfriends chatting and laughing makes me feel young.

-- I feel young when I feel I have accomplished something like figuring out how my new camera works.

-- Our dogs make me feel young again because it's just like having children in the house once again.

When I feel Old:

-- I feel old when every muscle and joint in my body aches or throbs like a toothache. Some days are like that, where you hurt from the tips of your toes right to your fingertips.

-- I feel older in the winter because this happens more frequently then. I'm also colder in the winter. I always say I feel cold from October until the end of April because the cold goes right through me.

-- I guess I would have to say that I also feel old when I get sick and am dependent on someone else to look after me. Lawrence has had his fair share of this in that department.

-- Someone mentioned that the new digital language or gadgets confuse them--this too makes me feel old. It takes me a heck of a lot longer to figure out something than (it does) someone younger and then… I have to call my son.

-- Another thing that makes me feel old is… my memory. I forget people's names and this can be sooo embarrassing. I'm in a store and I see someone I worked with in the distance and I can't remember her name. So I push my cart around a few aisles and hopefully can come up with the name… I could probably think of loads more but can't remember any at the moment.

Sandy wrote:

Forgetting names, I've had that happen more times than I care to remember. Even worse, some of them are people I worked with for YEARS and then I will go over to the office for some reason - see someone I know - and go blank.

One time, this young pregnant woman accompanied by a man came up to our door and greeted me like an old friend - saying she'd been telling her husband about this house and could they see it? I said ok and was walking them through the house - when it came to me that she was my landlady's daughter ... ok, had that part down - and could comment in passing something about "your mother...." but I was BLANK about her name...until they were back in their car and waving goodbye... and it came to me.

Another time - this man in a wheelchair came up to the door accompanied by several people and greeted me, saying "Aren't you going to give me a hug?" so duh, I give him a hug wondering WHO IS THIS? It took me about 2 minutes to realize that he was the son of my ex’s best friend. (This young man was paralyzed by a motorcycle accident).

-- Feel old when I can’t figure out things on the computer or my digital camera and I have to ask someone like my 17-year old nephew for help!

-- Feel young when someone tells me I don’t look old enough to be retired! (Of course, looks can be deceptive!).

Marge S wrote:

-- Feel old when I walk and hear myself groaning because the knees hurt so much.

-- Feel young when I am with people my age who are having a good time and chatting up a storm. Our minds still work. Most of the time, anyhow.

-- I knew when I was getting older when I was teaching school. Toward the end of my career, I would hear questions like "When are you going to retire?" I looked around at my colleagues in the lounge and began to think I am the oldest person in this room.

-- I also found it harder to remember the names of students. After teaching all those years, my mind was sort of rusty about names.

-- One time when a student asked me how old I was, I coyly replied, "I'm the same ages as Wyandotte (the name of the school). It was opened the same year I was born. The student then replied, "Do you mean this building or the first one?" ARGGHH! Coy doesn't work so well when you are past 50.

-- I feel young whenever my grand children come to visit. I know they feel I am old, but we have such a good time together doing some fun things. I love to talk to them on their level, and they seem to enjoy being here. Mom keeps them in so many activities from spring/summer that we don't get to see them very often.

-- My mind is still young even if the body isn't. I love to keep track of news and current events. I have not mastered technology, and I don't expect I ever will. Soon as I feel comfortable with something new, there are two other devices on the market. Most of them I don't think I need anyhow. I sort of feel like I am living with one foot in two different eras.

Marge N wrote:

As to feeling older/feeling younger, I feel mostly OLDER. The tasks that used to take me a couple of hours now take all day. Some tasks just seem to much work and I never start them!

-- I find it hard to sit for several hours - like in that AARP class the last 2 days - and then get up and try to move. Usually have to stand a couple of minutes to get my body oriented!

-- Stairs are a challenge most of the time.

-- I feel old when I can't figure out the new technology. I don't have a digital camera and partly because I don't know if I could figure out how to use it! Son Brian keeps telling me I need one (they are on their 2nd or 3rd, but then he is a computer engineer so no challenge to him)!

-- I have no idea about I-Pods, and MP-3 players, and I don't think it is anything I'd enjoy anyway.

-- I think the only part of me that is young is part of my brain - like having all these thoughts about the projects I want to do, crafts I want to do, etc. and then they never get done because they seem to require too much effort.

I still picture myself as in the 30's or 40's perhaps - back when I had lots of energy to do things.

Share your two cents on Aging...

When do you feel old? When do you feel young?

Do you have an experience to share with others to put "aging" into perspective? It is what you make of it, and sometimes getting older is for the dogs, other times you might just enjoy that serenity and wisdom that comes with age!