How do you deal with getting older?

[bikingjahuty]

I recently had a birthday which puts me in my late 30s. I understand I'm still not old, and by conventional standards I'm not even middle aged yet, but one thing that has been on my mind a lot over the last year or so is how people deal with getting older.


it's a strange thing coming out of your late teens, 20s, and even your early 30s and most things are more or less as you remembered them, but then you realize one day they're not. Your relatives you've had in your minds eye as being around a certain age most of your life are now several decades beyond that, you start to hear more and more about people you knew personally dying, and even you aren't the same person anymore. You don't have the energy you once did, your body has all sorts of random aches and pains you never used to have, and you could have sworn you were just renewing your plates or paying your taxes a few months ago, when it's actually been a whole year already. I guess the passage of time and the reality of how much time has passed is starting to finally catch up with me. Does anyone else have feelings like this or have you dealt with this and somehow come to terms with it?

[tripredacus]

Just wait until the day you realise your generation turned into your parents' generation without you knowing it. That happened to me recently (about a week ago) and it was strange realisation since I don't actually consider myself to be part of my generation despite actually being in it. The people I interact with on an almost daily or weekly basis, or the people I hang out with are all generally younger than me, by 10-20 years. Working in an arcade does that I guess. I don't feel my age or look it based on what people tell me. Being an arch meme lord of the internet and a survivor of the great forum wars keeps me in touch with how younger people act and talk and behave. Typically people tend to stay in their age group more due to entering into the work force where you are more likely to interact with people around your age or older.

People naturally settle down in life and become less active. When you get into your 30s you are probably not going partying anymore and do not have as active of a lifestyle. If you are a man, you are less likely to keep up your appearance, especially if you have gotten married and/or had kids, because you are no longer in the social competition space. You end up getting those random aches and pains because your brain doesn't keep up with your lifestyle. Maybe you are not exercising the same way you did, if you played sports or were generally active in one way or another. But your brain will still remember how you could do certain things and you will still try to do things the same way even though your body will have changed. They are an indicator that you need to change a behaviour, either get back into shape or what usually happens, make adjustments to your life to try to prevent those aches and pains.

The best way to come to terms with it is just live your life. Everyone gets to experience getting older, and you have the opportunity to make the best of it.