So, do you feel your age? Act your age? Like your age?

[vickko]

So, do you feel your age? Act your age? Like your age?

Me, I'm "just" into my second half-century. But I feel I've always been "out of my age" in activities. For instance:
- did sports "out of the normal age", too young for some (cycling too young), too old for others (figure skating too old).
- got married way late - in my late thirties
- had son late - most dads were much younger
- wife is now pregnant - we're going to break local records for "oldest new parents"!!!
- I'm back at university, with first year students. I'm more than old enough to be their parent

So - often feel "out of sync with age". Sometimes nice. Sometimes not.

You?

....V

 

[Khan]

Not sure.
Just glad I am beyond w*rk, reproducing, giving a hoot about most things.

 

[ScottFromUtah]

Wow, Vicko, congratulations on being an old parent, again.

Personally, I feel much younger at age 65 than I ever expected to, especially with seven kids and 20 grandkids. E.g., yesterday, I swam a mile and biked (cycling) 25 miles. Today, I ran five mile. Saturday, I will run 14 miles as I continue my preparation for a June marathon and a July triathlon.

I also have a full head of hair, with no visible gray. Yah, I feel young.

 

[Tesaje]

I don't really care. I yam what I yam and like what I yam. Close enuf for me and I wouldn't want to go back to my youth for anything.

 

[plex]

I was, and still am, a lot older, in all ways except physically, than my peers. It has been like that from a very young age, so it was very hard to socialize until recently with those anywhere near my age range. I had no trouble socializing with adults as a grew up.

It can be really bizarre in a lot of ways when talking to my peers, even now, such as if the conversation turns towards where I see myself in 10 years.

This is certainly a big part of the reason why I started investing and planning for FIRE decades before the average person normally starts.

 

[freebird5825]

So, do you feel your age? Act your age? Like your age?
...So - often feel "out of sync with age". Sometimes nice. Sometimes not.

You?
....V

Great questions!
It's funny...when I was a teenager, I had to grow up quickly and be more mature. College bound, w*rking and saving, reaching for the brass ring. The "constantly swimming upstream" c*reer definitely aged me mentally and physically.
All throughout this, I fought to keep my sense of humor and acted any d*mn way I wanted, within reason...um...most of the time. I actually had the nerve to bring laughter into otherwise dull meetings.
Now that I'm 51 and FIREd for almost 3 years, I am redeveloping my inner child. I have lost all the worry lines and people constantly remark at how young I look and how happy I appear.
I feel younger. I refuse to act my age, and I like my age...19 between the ears.

 

[W2R]

I feel and act like a 61-year-old, and have for the past 60 years or so.

 

[brewer12345]

Eh, I am a middle-aged salaryman with two kids, a stay at home spouse, and a minivan commuting to a dead-end job from my home in the 'burbs and trying not to grow too much of a paunch. Yeah, I need a vacation.

 

[Moemg]

I do not feel my age and probably do not act it . I'm always surprised when I meet people younger than me who are so old & stodgy acting . I'm 62 and promise to grow up someday soon !

 

[haha]

I am amazed at those who can run 5-10 miles/day into their 60s. My ex FIL ran marathons after 65, but by 70 he had two new hips. So maybe not really cool after all.

I walk up and down hills most everyday, almost always between 4 and 7 miles. (5.5 today) If I upped it to 10 miles/day, I doubt I could do it daily. As it is I usually pass out before I get into bed.

I no longer want to take risks at sport, my life satisfies me without those thrills, so why chance injury? I think for most older people what counts is frequency. And I think one should find a way to do intervals or really push once or twice weekly- but only for a short time. Like 6 or 8 (30" by 30")s. Even that I suppose might give you a heart attack.

What I do like to do is what is for me pure fun- dancing, walking around talking to people, looking at stuff and people.

Ha

 

[cardude]

My wife says I act like a big kid. I'm 45 and I surf, ride dirt bikes, wakeboard and waterski and play all sorts of sports with the kids. I never had any problems doing all this stuff before, but I'm really starting to feel it lately. Was so sore recently after a building a patio and then a 3 hour baseball game with the kids/other parents that I could barely walk the next day.

 

[REWahoo]

I never had any problems doing all this stuff before, but ...

You've discovered a basic truth - the 'but' will inevitably kick your 'butt".

 

[bbbamI]

So, do you feel your age?

Well I've been 52 for a few months now, so yeah I'm gettin' used to it.

Act your age?

I'm just a third of the way through being 52...I'll get with ya later...

Like your age?

I love my age. It's a wonder I made it to 50. Every year that goes by now is a cause for celebration...

 

[Gone4Good]

I got married way earlier than others my age. Retired way earlier. At this rate, I figure I should be dead by the time I reach 55.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Many people are visibly amazed when they learn DW's and my true ages. I guess we don't act like it. No matter. Like Tesaje said, we am what we am. I will be the oldest kid in the rest home.

 

[tinlizzy]

I'm 45 and I surf, ride dirt bikes, wakeboard and waterski

Be careful...waterskiing can be hazardous to your hamstrings after 40! I forgot how old I was and decided to jump the wake while waterskiing... I did the splits and nearly tore my hamstring off my rear-end! OUCH! I even got Dilaudid at the ER - an old person pain med according to a 20-something nurse I know.

I'm 42, thinner than most people my age but getting very wrinkly from working outdoors my whole life. I wouldn't want to be younger. I act older than my age I think - still no cellphone and no desire to trade up to a bigger, newer, better house but I have seen more of the world traveling than my age group (around here, anyway).

 

[RunningBum]

I'm in my late 40s, ski every day, and bring down the average age of nearly every group I ski with at my resort. Skied with a guy in his late 80s yesterday. However, I also run marathons and ultras and usually bring up the average age of any age group I run with. I'm learning the age is just a number that doesn't have much to do with how active you can be, though you can't completely ignore that number.

 

[Moscyn]

Don't feel my age or act my age. I like my age though I don't mind if if I can be a couple of years younger! But the answers depend on comparison. Say for instance, my answer would differ if I compare my lifestyle with my colleagues. I am likely the second oldest in my department of 50 people. I don't think my colleagues suspect that. Their average age is early thirties whereas I'm fifty. We work with the same energy level though I am less commited in the hours. I lead a more active live in terms of exercise, outdoor activities, eating well and they do more night drinks and work overtime. In terms of lifestyle comparison, I guess I am different and acting my age.

 

[HsiaoChu]

Exercise just gets harder and harder. I tend to have an addictive personality. When I run I have to run pumping(curling) 5 lb weights to chest level or walking with large strides with legs in a crouch position curling 5 pounders to above head.

While it was hard when I was running down the beach in NC with the 7 pounders, its much much harder at age 61 than it was at age 42. And my muscles don't jump back as fast and my feet get sorer quicker.

Plus I have less hair. And the young ladies no longer look at this wanna-be grandpa with anything other than what I did when I looked at my grandmother when I was twenty.

Problem is that in my mind, I'm still about 25.

Z

 

[haha]

Exercise just gets harder and harder. I tend to have an addictive personality. When I run I have to run pumping(curling) 5 lb weights to chest level or walking with large strides with legs in a crouch position curling 5 pounders to above head.

I think that is a great exercise, but for the last few years I wind up with elbow tendonitis if I try to do it much.

Ha

 

[Bestwifeever]

Interesting thread, Vickko. DH and I surely look our age and don't care that we do, but we act like youthful fools most of the time (I'm watching and laughing at Family Guy right now as proof). DH went back to school fulltime last year for a masters after REing in 2008--at 61 he is probably the oldest person the program has ever had but he is an integral part of the class, which ranges from 24 years old up to him. I have taken noncredit classes at our community college forever and am thrilled when there is someone in them who is my age.

I like Freebird's comment above about redeveloping her inner child. It's good to remember what used to be fun before we were grownups.

 

[Koolau]

I use the title of this JB song quite often. I'm not all that active, physically, but I still feel like I'm about 18 or so between the ears. I refuse to take life too seriously (or especially take myself too seriously). Life does get more precious as the time goes by. So, what were the questions again? I forget.

YouTube - Growing Older... but not up

 

[haha]

YouTube - Jerry Lee Lewis: Thirty-nine and holding

 

[WhoDaresWins]

Vicko---your kids will keep you young! That's what my Dad always said and he was 44 when my sister was born and 50 when I came in to the world. And he was right. He was a lively person, fun loving, interested in everyone and everything around him. He always seemed younger to me than the fathers of many of my peers.

How I feel depends on the day. I am 55 and in pretty good shape physically except for the occasional ache or pain. I don't know that I could put an age number on how I feel mentally. I don't consciously try to act or look younger than I am, just try to keep healthy, but I do care about looking well-groomed. I guess I like my chronological age, better to be on this side of the daisies than on the other. I have more time these days to concentrate on just myself than many of my peers, which can be either a good thing or a bad thing. I try to spend this time fine tuning things for my eventual retirement in a couple of years, being a good friend, and partaking in activities that interest me. The vicissitudes of life have knocked some of the hubris out of me. Acceptance of things I have no control over can be a hard row to hoe, but it brings a type of content in its own right.

 

[Walt34]

So - often feel "out of sync with age". Sometimes nice. Sometimes not.

You?

....V

Like others sometimes and sometimes not. In high school people sometimes asked "why are you always so serious?"

But I didn't finish my BS degree until my mid 40's, DW just finished hers last May. Last year I bought a motorcycle after a 31-year layoff from riding, next week we're taking a noncredit class at a community college and they have others I'm interested in, like the one in motorcycle maintenance/repair. I doubt DW will go to that one though.

Keeping up with exercises is harder than ever. I don't suppose it will get easier.

My favorite t-shirt quote: "Inside every 80-year-old is an 18-year-old wondering what the hell happened."