^ 
I looked like a nerdier version of Todd Rundgren in my HS yearbook photo.
I looked like a nerdier version of Todd Rundgren in my HS yearbook photo.
When did you realize you were old(er)?
- Thread starter Mr. Laser Beam
- Start date
I've got books that are much older than you.I am 24 and I used the phrase "Back In My Day"
You think that's bad? I have a New Jersey Devils sweater that's older than Jax. (I knew someone who played goal for them back around 1983 or 84, so I got a sweater with his number on the back, and it's still in the closet.)
Yeah, let's not go there. (I was two months from finishing high school when my manager was born.)
Really? When I was watching him pitch, I was thinking, "Mmm, I want to run my hands through his hair."
As for me, I felt old when my doctor told me I needed to increase the fibre content of my diet, and I went to the supermarket, and spent 45 minutes comparing the fibre levels in every single brand of granola bar on the shelf. (For anyone else facing this issue, I'll save you the time: Fibre One.)
OTOH, I was carded in Atlanta three years ago, and until about a year ago was dating someone who was born about a month and a half after I finished high school. So take that how you will.
Oh, and if anyone is wondering, I'm 43. Except for the grey hair, which is coming in faster every day, I do look younger than that. However, there are days when I feel like I'm about 70 - usually when the alarm goes off at 6 and I hadn't gotten to bed the night before until 1 or so.
*checks clock*
Oops. Good night.
I have cassette tapes older than most posters here.
Time for some ultimate frisbee!
I have 8-Track tapes older than most posters here.
The license plate on my car is thirty years old. Not just the number, the actual plate.
When my doctor said it was time for... that exam.
LOL! Been there, done that - TWICE. Dave Barry did a column on that "adventure" that is absolutely hysterical. I'll try to find a link to it.
EDIT
Found it:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2009/02/11/427603/dave-barry-a-journey-into-my-colon.html
I don't yet feel "old," but I feel like I'm headed that direction. Part of my problem is more that I'm fat than old. If I could get my weight down, I'd feel younger.
However, the big moment where I began to realize that I was no longer in the "younger part of my life" was two years ago when one of my students was incapable of using the cassette deck in the band room. She didn't realize that you had to rewind cassettes. She thought that like DVDs, CDs, and MP3s, they just reset to the beginning when you inserted them into a different machine.
The second big moment was when I realized that I either needed to shave off my beard of invest in Just for Men. I don't have grey on my head, just in my beard.
However, the big moment where I began to realize that I was no longer in the "younger part of my life" was two years ago when one of my students was incapable of using the cassette deck in the band room. She didn't realize that you had to rewind cassettes. She thought that like DVDs, CDs, and MP3s, they just reset to the beginning when you inserted them into a different machine.
The second big moment was when I realized that I either needed to shave off my beard of invest in Just for Men. I don't have grey on my head, just in my beard.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Learn to love the grey, it will be your friend for the rest of your life.
PS: I love the sig. Truth told there.
Learn to love the grey, it will be your friend for the rest of your life.
PS: I love the sig. Truth told there.
Crap! I teach high school!
Probably around 27-28 is when I realized I was "older".
Because everything takes longer to heal. It takes longer to get over a hangover. It takes longer for a small cut to heal. It takes longer for a headache to go away. It takes longer to feel ready to go in the mornings.
It's really given me an appreciation for athletes that are 30+.
Because everything takes longer to heal. It takes longer to get over a hangover. It takes longer for a small cut to heal. It takes longer for a headache to go away. It takes longer to feel ready to go in the mornings.
It's really given me an appreciation for athletes that are 30+.
^Either that, or a pedo.
You know--I actually thought of complimenting SmoothieX for posting such a masterpiece of ambiguity.
Now I wish I had.
Thank you Goliath. Sadly King and Queen Literal spoiled it for the rest of us.
I am very conflicted about this 'age' thing. Things like needing more recovery time between runs (I could once run every day - now only every other day) and feeling stiff in the morning tell me I'm older. Birthdays rolling around way too quickly tell me I'm older. But I don't think like an older person most of the time.
I am, for example, much more of a techie than most women my age. I don't drive what I consider to be a middle-aged person's kind of car. I can't get into the TV shows many women my age talk about (my sister, who is 3 years younger than me, DVRs The View and Oprah, for example...while over the course of my entire lifetime, I bet I've spent less that 1 hr total watching these shows). And although I was around for MTV in the 80's and watched a lot of it back then, I am not 'stuck' in the 80's in terms of the bands I listen to (my brother, who was always the family 'metalhead', sent me an email the other day declaring that the bands I listen to are 'too angry' and that he 'will just stick with Iron Maiden, thanks'. ). I still love adventure and travel solo with a backpack, not requiring a 5 star hotel, an air conditioned tour bus, a pre-planned itinerary, or food that is 'just so'. And while I'm at it...should I find myself in Amsterdam or some similar place, I am not at all opposed to hanging in a coffeehouse and smoking a bowl of hash. Or two. 
But most of all, I don't think I have developed what I see as the middle-aged curmudgeon mindset - I have my views about politics, religion, marriage & relationships, child-rearing, etiquette, and other issues, but I don't require (and actually, actively avoid) the talking heads on talk radio (particularly political talk radio, but really, ALL talk radio) to validate my opinions and beliefs and make me feel all smug and superior and happy with myself. Or worse yet, TELL me what to believe like I am a frakkin' sheep. Frankly, that whole scene makes me wanna hurl, it's so...I don't know...buttoned down and dogmatic and utterly lacking in originality or independent thought. Seriously - many days, I think alot of people my age really need to frakkin' take a pill and relax, before they tense themselves into an early grave over things that oftentimes do not even concern them!
I guess the bottom line is that, in many ways, I am a non-conformist. Even when it looks from the outside as if I'm conforming, I am very often not, in fact, conforming, but am actually doing or believing exactly as I like, based on my own value system and independently conducted research, soul-searching, and thought process. And most of what I am about is not etched in stone like a lot of people my age. My views are still subject to change, based on life experience - I do not try to cram my life experience into a pre-existing value set. For me, that is like whacking a square peg into a round hole - I just can't do it.
As I said, not really a middle aged person's mindset. Especially not a middle aged person in the South's mindset. I mean, it seems like these people down here? They had it all figured out by the time they were 30, and haven't changed one iota since. And seriously - I don't know how to do that: make everything 'my final answer'. I got no 'final answers'.
I am, for example, much more of a techie than most women my age. I don't drive what I consider to be a middle-aged person's kind of car. I can't get into the TV shows many women my age talk about (my sister, who is 3 years younger than me, DVRs The View and Oprah, for example...while over the course of my entire lifetime, I bet I've spent less that 1 hr total watching these shows). And although I was around for MTV in the 80's and watched a lot of it back then, I am not 'stuck' in the 80's in terms of the bands I listen to (my brother, who was always the family 'metalhead', sent me an email the other day declaring that the bands I listen to are 'too angry' and that he 'will just stick with Iron Maiden, thanks'.
). I still love adventure and travel solo with a backpack, not requiring a 5 star hotel, an air conditioned tour bus, a pre-planned itinerary, or food that is 'just so'. And while I'm at it...should I find myself in Amsterdam or some similar place, I am not at all opposed to hanging in a coffeehouse and smoking a bowl of hash. Or two. But most of all, I don't think I have developed what I see as the middle-aged curmudgeon mindset - I have my views about politics, religion, marriage & relationships, child-rearing, etiquette, and other issues, but I don't require (and actually, actively avoid) the talking heads on talk radio (particularly political talk radio, but really, ALL talk radio) to validate my opinions and beliefs and make me feel all smug and superior and happy with myself. Or worse yet, TELL me what to believe like I am a frakkin' sheep. Frankly, that whole scene makes me wanna hurl, it's so...I don't know...buttoned down and dogmatic and utterly lacking in originality or independent thought. Seriously - many days, I think alot of people my age really need to frakkin' take a pill and relax, before they tense themselves into an early grave over things that oftentimes do not even concern them!
I guess the bottom line is that, in many ways, I am a non-conformist. Even when it looks from the outside as if I'm conforming, I am very often not, in fact, conforming, but am actually doing or believing exactly as I like, based on my own value system and independently conducted research, soul-searching, and thought process. And most of what I am about is not etched in stone like a lot of people my age. My views are still subject to change, based on life experience - I do not try to cram my life experience into a pre-existing value set. For me, that is like whacking a square peg into a round hole - I just can't do it.
As I said, not really a middle aged person's mindset. Especially not a middle aged person in the South's mindset. I mean, it seems like these people down here? They had it all figured out by the time they were 30, and haven't changed one iota since. And seriously - I don't know how to do that: make everything 'my final answer'. I got no 'final answers'.
Don't remind me. I became eligible four weeks ago. Not a milestone I care to acknowledge.When my doctor said it was time for... that exam.
Same here. I shaved off my beard around 1991 and now if I go without shaving for a couple of days I start to look like Arvin Sloane.
PKTrekGirl I relate to much of your post. It's alarming to watch your peers calcify, many already at 30. Not listening to new music and a knee jerk eschewing of new fads seems to be the norm. Some become devout luddites. When I was last single I found I couldn't relate to any males my age or older as they seemed to be trapped in whatever opinions and tastes they had developed in their 20's. They could not be shifted into seeing the world as full of new and wonderful things, in their minds everything was worse than in their hey day. It is a horrible mindset.
^Either that, or a pedo.
You know--I actually thought of complimenting SmoothieX for posting such a masterpiece of ambiguity.
Now I wish I had.
Thank you Goliath. Sadly King and Queen Literal spoiled it for the rest of us.
Hey, curtsy when you say that! You are addressing a king after all.....
