Probably the biggest reason I have been thinking so much about age lately is because my nineteenth birthday was two days ago. Well, three days ago, since it is currently past midnight. Furthermore, my brother, Sam, had his eleventh birthday the day after mine, and Sarah's seventeenth birthday is this coming Monday. I wrote a letter on my birthday to someone very dear to me, and in it I wrote something to the effect of, "Today is my nineteenth birthday. I feel more like an adult than a child." Then I rambled about cherishing your youth and cliché junk like that. This person is a couple years younger than me, so I guess I decided to take advantage of my old age, wise counsel, sage advice...
Victor Hugo apparently said, "Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age." I've been thinking about that. I also recently heard that although women have, on average, a longer lifespan than men, women, on average, begin to consider themselves "old" at the age of 29. For men, it is 58. (http://www.aolhealth.com/2011/03/28/men-feel-old-at-58-women-at-only-29/) I have been thinking about that as well.
Furthermore, I announced on my facebook the other day that I am 300 years old. It was a decision I made on a whim. I guess that would make my birthday May 11, 1711.
Do you think anyone would notice if I used white-out on my birth certificate?
The reason for this decision is that although I rarely get sick and am quite healthy, I also often feel achey and weak and a lot of mysterious things happen to my body that I don't bother seeing a doctor or complaining about because they're not a big enough deal. But sometimes I just feel old. In my mind, too, sometimes I think I've aged more than some people two or three times my age. So I figure, is it better to be nineteen and feel like I'm fifty, or is it better to be three hundred and feel like I'm fifty? I choose the latter. If I was 300 years old, I bet I'd feel pretty awesome and young right now.
One of my favorite things about no longer being a child is the fact that age no matter makes as much of a difference. I can be friends with people significantly older than me or significantly younger than me. It really makes no difference. When I was little, I didn't know I could be friends with people who weren't my age. I'm glad I learned better.
I have also been thinking about the way I appear to others. Children usually guess that I am in my mid-twenties, but today a woman who must have been in her fifties at least, asked me whether I was in high school or middle school. I told her I was in college. Perhaps it's all relative.
I don't want to become old.
But I still take comfort in knowing that I will be in Heaven someday, no longer aging, no longer weary. Lasting forever... Much comfort from this.
God bless. I'll see you all next time, when we're all a little older.
The reason for this decision is that although I rarely get sick and am quite healthy, I also often feel achey and weak and a lot of mysterious things happen to my body that I don't bother seeing a doctor or complaining about because they're not a big enough deal. But sometimes I just feel old. In my mind, too, sometimes I think I've aged more than some people two or three times my age. So I figure, is it better to be nineteen and feel like I'm fifty, or is it better to be three hundred and feel like I'm fifty? I choose the latter. If I was 300 years old, I bet I'd feel pretty awesome and young right now.
One of my favorite things about no longer being a child is the fact that age no matter makes as much of a difference. I can be friends with people significantly older than me or significantly younger than me. It really makes no difference. When I was little, I didn't know I could be friends with people who weren't my age. I'm glad I learned better.
I have also been thinking about the way I appear to others. Children usually guess that I am in my mid-twenties, but today a woman who must have been in her fifties at least, asked me whether I was in high school or middle school. I told her I was in college. Perhaps it's all relative.
I don't want to become old.
But I still take comfort in knowing that I will be in Heaven someday, no longer aging, no longer weary. Lasting forever... Much comfort from this.
God bless. I'll see you all next time, when we're all a little older.
interesting thoughts :)
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