I Am HOW Old?!

This picture does not belong to me.

The Woes of Growing Older

 

I’m 25 years old.

No, wait! I’m 2-.

Umm…hold on. 88, 89…2012. Ok, yea I’m 2-.

I don’t know if this is a subconscious effort to appear young or my brain is finally giving into the sleep deprivation I’ve suffered from due to my little monkey.  Whenever someone asks my age, my go-to response has been 25, for the past two years! If I have to tell someone my real age, I actually have to think about it.

My nephews, 5 and 2 years old, start reminding people months in advance that their birthdays are coming up and how old they will be (along with a list of birthday presents they are expecting).  Whatever happened to those months of excitement leading up to our birthdays? Why do we start dreading the glorious day we were brought into this world? Is it because we dread growing old and weak? Or is it our fear of running out of time yet not having done anything worthwhile?

At every job I’ve held ever since high school, I’ve had the coincidence of being the youngest person in the office by at least 10 years. Some people didn’t care that I was young while others had issues with my age and brought up the fact that I’m “so young” at every opportunity they could find. I never understood their obsession (and yes, sometimes jealousy) because if you think about it, they were once where I am now. Nobody is born old. We all have to travel a long road to get there so why were these individuals jealous of the fact that I’m just starting out on my journey? 

The root of the issue, in my opinion, was that my being there, being their equal, and in some cases, their superior confirmed that they are now “old”. That because I was born when they were graduating college or having children meant that their time was coming to an end. Or so they thought.

I’m a firm believer that you are only as old as you think you are. What is age but a number to group us together and give us another category to compare ourselves. Instead of wasting out energy keeping up with the Kardashians, we should be focusing on keeping up with our inner self.  We should take the word “impossible” out of our vocabulary and test our limits so when we are old, and a 20 something becomes our co-worker, we won’t sulk in a corner about how young they are but rather have them gush over how “cool” we are (if cool is still cool in 30 years!).   

So here is to me embracing the fact that I am getting older and will only get older!