- My knee still doesn’t feel right after that hiking trip two weeks ago.
- I started listening to really old music.
Have I crossed the threshold?
Nope, you’re describing not being young, that’s nothing like being actually old. Growing old has a bunch of stages:
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joint pain
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can no longer dance all night
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hangovers last all day
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dentists start talking to you about your gums
But then you get to the phase of
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skin losing elasticity
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liking dinner parties
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marijuana is now a medicine
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developed distinct preferences about stuff like threadcount
And then after that the next phase is more like
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a lot of time worrying about your parents
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all body fat migrates to one or two of its favourite spots
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seriously consider putting everything on lanyards
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your favourite singers are all dead
And so on, you get the picture. That’s as far as I’ve traveled but as far as I can see the phases after that involve things like bladder leakage and losing friends to alzheimers.
Multiple of your friends have cancer, died of cancer, or of other illnesses. But mostly the cancer.
You wonder if your bowels are OK. They are not.
Seeing a lot of my dad’s friends starting to drop off has hit me and made me prize my own relationships more. Every day is a choice you make for what you prioritize.
fuck, this is accurate. i recognized myself in everything you wrote. (age 50ies)
Glad it’s not just me!
I worried about my mum constantly since I was only 14/15, she had heart disease and died three years ago at 54. My dad also has heart problems, copd, diabetes, psoriasis and arthritis in his hands. He’s only 55 and I don’t know if he’ll even live to retirement age. I’m only 27.
Edit: Should’ve included this. I also have ulcerative colitis which is a form of IBD Irritable Bowel Disease and I do shit myself several times a year) so my bowels are fucked already. Again I’m only 27. By your metrics I’ve met two of the conditions to be old due to shite luck with the roll of the dice of life.
Sorry friend, that sounds really hard. I’m really sorry you lost your mum.
Someone I knew with colitis said it calmed down by itself after about a decade, so I hope that happens to you.
I’m hoping it calms down when I get out on a different medication. The new one I’m on doesn’t seem to be working despite the fact according to the manufacturer it should start working in 48 hours and I should’ve noticed a gradual difference at this point and it should work fully within 3 weeks. Anyway there’s a specialist nurse that’s my main point of contact for care for it and she wants to put me on a biologic that’s taken as an IV drip which would mean I’d see an improvement quickly. The consultant that makes the decisions and has the final say disagrees and wants me still on the one that doesn’t seem to work. I’m in hospital again after only leaving a month ago and my symptoms are worse today so the current treatment that I’m on in hospital may not be working so the nurse might end up winning the argument. I’m hoping she does because I’d love to get rid of the flare I’ve had since January and feel like normal again.
I grew up with my grandparents. And while my grandpa has been dead for years, lately I’m acurely aware how my grandma - now 91 - doesn’t have much time left. She had a few really close calls already, and covid was absolutely not nice to her health when she got it.
It is treated, it’s better to go on a diet, for example VLCD or something (go to pubmed) ⚠️Аnd of course, consult a doctor before dieting.
I remember my mom telling me about phases of life as she experienced them:
- All your friends start getting married, you go to a lot of weddings
- All your friends start having kids, you go to a lot of baby showers
- Many of your friends start getting divorced, and you have to deal with trying to be friends with the former couple separately
- Many of your friends get married a second time, weddings again
- Many of your friends start having grandkids
At the time she concluded with “Some those were hard, but it was all okay. But now, all my friends are dying…”
My mom once planned a trip up to my city with some of her friends to see a concert, they made plans a few weeks out but by the time the day arrived, she was coming up for two funerals, the group was smaller by two people. She told me “can’t make long range plans when you are old, go see people right away because if you wait they might be dead!”
Yeah, for me the big thing wasn’t even that my belly is becoming more and more of an issue despite my weight being the same, it was how how many cancer checkups are all of a sudden free and done regularly and how doctors always do a routine full checkup no matter why I went there. (am 40+)
Stage one: Effortful noise when rising from a low chair/sofa
Stage two: Inability to rise from a low chair/sofa. Beanbag? Nooooo….
My own turning point was finding myself unable to get out of the bath by just standing up. It was comic but also terrifying. I eventually worked out I could lever myself up with my arms. Phew.
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What’s really old music? Like Greenday?
Bro don’t
Someone in here will say The Weeknd and cue mass existential crisis.
I didn’t even know who the weekend was until a couple years ago. Green day I do because I like the band a lot.
I had never heard of them until a Letterkenny episode mentioned them multiple times.
No no like, that classic golden oldies singer, Britney Spears!
Then there are those of us who were already adults when she was on the Mickey Mouse Club.
i think people are way too worried about being old while not enjoying the youth they have left right now
you can always be and feel older
You’ll never be as young as you are now
And this is the oldest you’ve ever been.
No this is
You nailed it. I’m loving it, I’m more fit now than ever and do so much more in my 40s than in my 20s even. It’s great. You’re only as old as you want to be. Listen to new music, try out new things and complain about it all when you’re 90+
We always feel old cuz we’ve never experienced being as old as today.
When you injure yourself sleeping
I do not like this comment.
Been doing this since I was a kid. I regularly hit my head off (on?) the wall in my sleep because I twist and turn during the night.
Put foam mats or foam sheets across your wall when you sleep!
You start noticing bird species you’ve never seen before… Wait! Was that a cedar waxwing???
Getting a new phone is annoying rather than exciting
ugh goddam planned obsolescence, i just want a tool that works well not a new toy every couple of years goddamit
They can pry the headphone jack from my cold dead hands
I turned my head to the right to look at something and sprained my neck.
So when just existing hurts, you’re old.
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Same. I’ve had shit joints since I was a kid. Sometimes I feel like I got a head start on aging 😛
You start looking for what the signs of getting old are. Seriously the big first thing that sorta marks the end of what I consider to be my healthy youth was jumping off a dock and having to take a moment after landing. Happened in my thirties.
I’m in good shape still, nothing hurts, but my goodness since I was about 40 everything takes forever to heal. Injuries that might have healed in 2 months when I was a kid can take 2 years to fully resolve. Why, when I have fewer years left?
I don’t get the music thing, I think maybe men are more nostalgic about music. I listen to a broad sweeping set of artists old and new, and my kids do too (one is a musician but all of them will hear something on tiktok and go find it). I still go see new and emerging acts, love finding new music.
Oh! And since nobody is talking about the positive things that happen when you get old: around 50 my green thumb arrived, I no longer kill plants by looking at them. I can coax them to grow. And can cook just about anything too, but that is accumulated years of experience, the plant thing just came like a gift. Around 45 I got the power of trust, like anyone would tell me anything - middle aged white lady power, people tell me things, I could be a spy or drug mule or something now and just skate through security, I am not suspicious. And mood gets easier to manage too, not so quick to anger or fear.
On the trust thing - every once in a while I’ll go to a concert by myself, stand in the back, and enjoy the moment and remember the old times.
More often than not, three or four young ladies will come up over the course of the evening and start giving me their life stories and their relationship struggles and whatnot.
This isn’t a flirting or drunk thing on either end of the equation. In that moment, they just seem to need somebody to listen to them.
Standing up feels like the check engine light comes on
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When listening to new music, I’m constantly recognizing how heavily they sample older songs that I remember listening to when I was a kid.
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A night out with friends often ends at 9 or 10p because we’re all tired.
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A night out with friends often includes a lot of discussion of various health issues and encouraging each to see a doctor.
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I’m finding myself more and more avoidant of new technology. Or maybe it’s just that I’m getting more concerned about maintaining a little sliver of privacy?
It genuinely irritates me when I hear sampled songs get passed as new without any credit to the original
In your opinion, how should they be crediting it? I’m having trouble trying to imagine a good way that it could be credited within the song, and I can’t imagine very many people actually pay attention to the credits for music, especially when so few of us are buying physical copies anymore.
I’ve definitely experienced feeling annoyed at the new songs, but some have grown on me, and hearing the samples often leads me to add the original to my playlist. I’ve actually been having a lot of fun trying to see if I can name the original artist & song title whenever a new one pops up.
The DJ should mention it, would be my solution. I got into Gary Numan’s Are Friends Electric after hearing Sugababes fantastic Freak Like Me (arguably better than Numans), but I had to find out that they sampled from him. A quick nod from the radio DJ would have saved time, and would have been respectful of the original
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I remember the first time I thought we were getting old: A friend suggested we meet for coffee at around 4pm. Fml.
What’s ‘old’ about that?
We used to meet for beers at any time of the day. Or night.
Having tea or coffee anytime past 10am is a sure sign of deliquescence of both body and mind I believe - and I should know since I totally reached that stage.
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My knees have been going out since I was like 16, so I’ve felt pretty old for a long time. I think my biggest old person thing is being very particular about my bedtime each night and always getting up at the same time. I definitely did not do that in my twenties.
Yeah same boat here.
Testosterone got the better of me weight lifting in high school and I fucked up the ligament that holds my left kneecap down.
I pop and crack like a 70 year old and I’m 29 (been happening since I was 17) and I can’t keep my left knee bent for long periods of time without it aching.
I’m trying to stay young by playing video games (primarily rocket league) but they don’t feel the same as when I was younger. That was my actual sign.
Yes I also listen to a lot of mid 2000s songs.
