Every year on my birthday my mom would say, “Age is just a number.”
However, she wasn’t imparting that advice to me.
She was talking about herself, since we share a birthday. Once she hit a certain double-digit number that ends with a zero, she joked we did not celebrate our birthdays anymore – just mine.
With my 27th birthday looming next month, I have been thinking about how people perceive age. People often joke with me about inching nearer to the big 3-0 milestone.
Many of the jokes make it seem like a bad thing, but the truth is I am looking forward to it.
When you are young and under 18 years old, everyone tells you to “wait until you get older and you’ll learn.”
I now agree with a lot of that statement, because I thought I knew everything about life at 18 and I have since learned I still have a long way to go.
Back then, though, I hated hearing it.
As I am now clear of my teenage years, I hear a lot of people say, “I wish I was your age again.”
I recently was diagnosed as lactose intolerant, which is a crippling blow to my cheese-loving soul.
When I was at the doctor being tested for the annoying and livable condition, the doctor remarked that while anyone at any age can develop an intolerance to dairy, it was rare for him to see the condition in someone in their 20s. He quipped that it’s normally people well into their 30s who randomly develop the condition.
He joked that I should slow down and not age so fast because it only gets worse.
I kind of laughed at him but at the same time I thought what a terrible outlook for the years ahead.
I left the appointment wanting to feed my emotions with cheese, but since I had just been told that would not be advisable, instead I got to thinking:
Why do so many people view a higher age as a bad thing?
Working at the Leader, I have to ask for people’s ages a lot. It’s common newspaper practice to include a source’s age in a story or a caption for a photo.
I quickly learned that people hate the question, “Do you mind sharing your age with me?” I would end my interviews with the question so people would not be uncomfortable after the first question. I would find myself having to convince them to share their age.
I found people typically from 30 to 80 did not want to share their age at all. I would get all sorts of funny and lame reasons, but most would say something to the effect that “People will judge me because I am old.”
Once I asked a woman and I expected her to not answer the question.
She proudly told me, “I am 94 years young.” She said she didn’t mind sharing her age because she considered it her “life badge of honor.”
That is the outlook I hope to keep for the rest of my life.
While I have noticed my back or neck hurts the next day if I sleep in an odd position or I am not as quick on my feet as I used to be, I am kind of proud of getting older and growing into myself.
So, Leader readers, what have you enjoyed about aging? What are things you wish you could turn back the clock on? Do you love and own your age, or do you hate being asked about it, and if so, why?
