The Older I Get

I remember growing up, I looked forward to growing older. When I was younger, I couldn't wait til my next birthday, my first double digit, my first 'teen' birthday, "sweet 16", 18 so I could be an  adult and then 21 when pretty much everything was legal. Now that I am older, I notice, I am no longer looking forward to getting older, in fact, I long to linger in whatever year I am currently at and cringe that time continues to roll forward.


I've noticed a few things as I do get older, there are definitely more aches and pains and those that I do get seem to last quite a bit longer than they used to. Things don't heal quite as quickly as I remember and recovery certainly takes a whole lot longer. Have you noticed that as well?

Experience teaches us that life will always continue to move on a forward momentum and often times seems to be speeding up instead of growing along in those graceful golden oldie moments. In fact, I just got my AARP card in the mail and thought why not? All these years must mean something right?Who doesn't want to take advantage of things like your senior discount, although I am not quite there just yet, but close.

I also notice how hard it is to continue along at the same pace as when you were younger. I appreciate and long for naps now. I'm not the night owl I was in my early teens and hate getting up early. For me, sleep and bedtime is now part of my favorite time of the day. It's a time for me to simply catch my breath and take a break from the demands life has placed on me during the day. I love vacations, holidays and days off from simply having things planned. I love the spur of the moment decisions and often times those are some of the best memories I have, the unplanned ones.

I often wonder what life will be like in the next five years much less ten. I know fitness and stay healthy continue to be a challenge. Every ten years our bodies metabolisms change and it becomes that much harder to lose weight than if I would have done it 10 years earlier. So much is changing and it seems like we are struggling to stay ahead of the fast pace. I fear, if we don't, we'll be left far too behind to catch up.

There are plenty of older jokes where you simply give up caring what people think of you. Age doesn't seem to be such an issue as it was when you were younger, and to that I can agree. I'm not ashamed of how old I am, but no longer am excited when someone asks either. I can see that time is a great teacher. It shows that the mistakes we make are great learning tools to ensure we don't make them again and most of all so we can share them with those around us. How quickly I notice that younger people have a tendency to write off our advice simply because they don't believe we can relate to what they are going through, and perhaps looking back, I can see I might have been the very same.

However, now I treasure the advice from those much older than I am. There is something to be said for all that time they have lived on this earth and I hope I have plenty more opportunities to not only take to those elderly around me, but to learn so much from them in the time they have left. I hope one day someone will look at me in much the same way as I am looking at my elders now. There is so much to learn from those who have gone before you. I just hope I am not too late.