As you're growing up, politicians, teachers, and pretty much everyone around you keep repeating that you are the future of this world. The person who will shape the way it looks tomorrow. But before you can take it all in, it's already the day after, the echo of those words has faded, and the only thing you're left with is that annoying back pain that doesn't go away no matter what mobility exercise you're doing.
But don't worry, this realization is part of maturity. To make it easier to accept, the subreddit 'Heck I'm Old' shares posts from people who are in the same position and choose to reminisce with smiles and giggles. So let's scroll through what they have to offer and maybe, just maybe, knowing that the past is still alive in our collective memory is exactly what we need to feel better about our wrinkles and graying hair.
#1 Nuff Said
Image credits: JimRussellMusic
#2 Let's Start Telling It Without Telling Your Age LOL Let's Who Will Win
Image credits: BlondHorseman
While the inevitable passage of time certainly takes a lot of things away from us, it does provide quite a few as well. One of its most important contributions is to the way we feel.
Positive and negative affect (mood) seem to operate independently of each other: you can have a lot or a little of either or both.
"High affect" people score above average on both positive and negative mood levels, while "low affect" people score less on both.
No matter which type you start out with, you can expect your affect levels to change in a favorable trajectory over the course of your life.
#3 I Feel Personally Attacked
Image credits: alwaus
#4 I Bet Future Generations Won't Understand This Immensely Frustrating Experience At All
Image credits: reddit.com
#5 Never Failed
Image credits: wrongsedself
According to research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, both men and women see an increase in positive affect as they get older (women, in particular, see a greater and accelerating increase).
On average, negative affect does not change for women predictably with age, but it decreases for aging men (with the caveat that the decrease is more pronounced for married men; for unmarried men, negative affect is elevated at every stage of life).
#6 Some Of You Can “Feel” This Door In Your Mind
Image credits: MajesticGyal
#7 Are You This Old?
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#8 Who Is Old Enough To Remember All Of These?
Image credits: HeO2Diver1101
Many theories have been proposed for why this happens. But a 2013 review of research indicates that older people develop at least three distinct emotional skills: 1) they react less to negative situations, 2) they are better at ignoring irrelevant negative stimuli than they were when younger, and 3) they remember more positive than negative information.
Basically, it's like knowing your negative emotions won’t last so you disregard them when they do arise and get a head start on the good feelings.
#9 If You Can Tell What This Is, You Might Be Old
Image credits: BitterFuture
#10 Yall Remember
Image credits: maria_tsoukalas60
#11 Haha
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#12 How Many Of You ‘70s Kids Can Feel This Picture?
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Arthur Brooks, who is a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Business School, where he teaches courses on leadership and happiness, thinks that when we're talking about growing old, we also have to mention changes in personality.
"Personality is generally separated by psychologists into five parts: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism," Brooks writes, discussnig a paper by two researchers in which they summarized ... a voluminous literature on how these dimensions of personality change as we move from childhood to old age.
#13 Does Anyone Remember This Movie?
Image credits: HereInThisRedEarth
#14 You’re Old, But Are You This Old?
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#15 Really I'm Old Enough ,who's With Me
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#16 This Always Seemed To Appear On My Parents Coffee Table Between Thanksgiving & Christmas
Image credits: Altruistic-Cut9795
"Some of the changes are not necessarily either good or bad. For example, people tend to become less gregarious after their mid-50s; they become more assertive from adolescence through their mid-30s and stay at this higher level; their openness to experience rises into early adulthood, stabilizes, and falls after their mid-50s."
But other changes are unambiguously positive. "Agreeableness tends to rise throughout adulthood, probably as we see its benefits and establish more emotional equanimity," Brooks adds. "Neuroticism usually falls, at least until one’s late 60s. And conscientiousness rises continuously. If you follow the typical development, you can expect to be nicer and kinder, and less depressed and anxious, when you are old."
#17 This Takes Me Waaay Back
Image credits: togugawa2
#18 If You Remember Seeing This Machine You're Pretty Old
Image credits: joetrumps
#19 Anyone Else Grow Up With These?
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#20 You May Be Old, But Are You This Old?
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Our self-esteem also tends to rise as we move through adulthood, all the way to age 60.
It usually stays at a high level until about 70, then slightly declines. This last downward section could be connected to the accumulating death toll of elderly friends and spouses, but even so, we can expect it to be better at age 80 than 30.
#21 Did Anyone Else Sleep In One Of These? I Think I Would Have To Be Helped Out Of It Today
Image credits: 1illiteratefool
#22 Who Else Made Their Own Popsicles?
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#23 These Guys Were The Best -
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#24 Driving Stick
Image credits: DarleneSusan58
So now that you know things are likely to get better as you age, we invite you to dive deeper into 'Heck I'm Old' and fire up our earlier publications on the subreddit 50 Painfully Funny Pics Of People Who Are Getting Old Faster Than They Expected and 40 Funny Posts Of People Grasping The Reality That They’re Old Now.
#25 The Older I Get, The More I Identify With These Men
Image credits: damagedgoodz99824
#26 You’re Old But Are You This Old?
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#27 I Loved These And Used To Read Them At The Dentist's Office. It Was Standard Waiting Room Stuff For Kids
Image credits: Longjumping_Prune852
#28 Who Remembers Changing A Channel By Turning The Knob
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#29 Who Was Around When These Two Became Famous And Then Infamous?
Image credits: MurseMan1964
#30 Who Dares To Admit That They Liked These Guys?
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#31 Truth
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#32 If You Ever Operated One Of These You're An Old Sob
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#33 Remember When You Opened A Band Aid By Pulling A String?
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#34 The Kids Have No Idea
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#35 Could This Movie Be Made Today?
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#36 This Is What 30 Year Olds Looked Like In The 80s
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#37 I’ll See Your Paddle Ball And Raise You A Cheap Airplane
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#38 F**k, I’m Old
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#39 The Golden Age Of Education
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#40 If You Remember This Boat…
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#41 If You Get It, You Get It
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#42 Dont Even Try To Tell Me You Dont Know These
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#43 Who Had One Of These?
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#44 I See Your "Tales From The Crypt," And Raise You Elvira
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#45 The F**k Is This?
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#46 How Old Are You… This Old
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#47 It Really Wasn't Difficult
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#48 Best Halloween Costumes Ever
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#49 Did You Ever Win Anything Other Than A Free Pop?
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#50 Who Remembers Him?
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#51 Are You Old Enough To Remember When Wendys Had Cool Old Fashion Tables?
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#52 You Can’t Hear A Picture?
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#53 When You Were Thirsty
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#54 Anyone Else?
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#55 The 80’s Really Were A Different World
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#56 If This Brings A Chuckle To You... Then Yeah, You're Old
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#57 I'm Telling Them
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#58 These Were Fun
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#59 I See Your Big Wheel, And Raise You A Tonka Dump Truck!
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#60 Old School Coffee Vending
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#61 If This Was Your First Live Action Joker, You're Old
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#62 Remember These
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#63 Remember What Show This Came From?
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#64 Who Remembers Being Fed This Delicious Pink Medicine With This Spoon As A Kid?
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#65 Wise Beyond His Years
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#66 If You Grew Up Back In The Day You Have A Definite Opinion On This Gum
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#67 If You Remember This Guy Yelling At You…
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#68 More And More With Each Passing Day!
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#69 When You Looked Forward To A Bath
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#70 If You Remember This Guy…
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#71 Don't Mind Me, I'm Just Checking Out The Back Of The Store
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#72 If You Remember What Movie This Scene Is From, You Probably Cancelled Your Canoe Trip To Georgia, And…you’re Old
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#73 Geeeeeez
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#74 Remember When Air Was Free?
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#75 You Are Definitely Fecking Old If You Remember This Guy
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#76 You May Be Old, But Are You This Old?
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#77 Anyone Else Have To Sell World's Finest Chocolate For School?
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#78 Old Enough To Remember Smoking In Grocery Stores
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#79 But Are You This F**kn Old?
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#80 Did You Know: These Spaceships Are Actually Guitars?
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#81 Who Remembers Bozo The Clown?!
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#82 If You Know What This Is Or Browsed The Catalog, You Are Old Af
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#83 Never Forget
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#84 Who Remembers This Gem Of A TV Show?
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#85 Critics Didn’t Like It. It Bombed At The Box Office, But I Liked It. Who Else?
Image credits: MurseMan1964
#86 Are You Old Enough To Remember Getting "Rained On" At The Grocery Store?
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#87 My 27 Year Old Son Didn’t Understand The Significance Of This Place
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#88 Crazy How They’ve All Aged So Well… Well Most Of Them
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#89 Anyone Ate At The Woolworths Counter?
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#90 Haven't Thought About These Since The 80s
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#91 I Was 11 Years Old. A Much Simpler Time. I Really Miss The Hot Apple Pies
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#92 Definitely Mad Max
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#93 Can You Hear It?
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#94 What Classic Shows Would Never Get Made Today?
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#95 This Stuff Smelled Like Heaven: Bike Chains, Skateboard Wheels, Baseball Gloves
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#96 If You Ever Got Bogged Down By One Of These, You’re Old
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#97 Pew Pew! Pewpew
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#98 Anyone Else This Old?
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#99 I See Your Pop Snaps And Raise You This.. Are You This Old ?
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#100 Were You One Of These Kids?
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#101 Who Remembers?
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#102 If You Know What This Small Half Circle Ring Is For, You’re Old
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#103 Are You So Old That You Participated In Hands Across America?
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#104 Are You This Old?
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#105 You Old Enough To Know Who These Guys Are?
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#106 I See Your Cap Bomb & Raise You…
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#107 If You Had One You Are Old
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#108 If You Have Opinions On These Guys You're Pretty Damn Old
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#109 Are You This Old?
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#110 If You Get This You're Pretty Old
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#111 What Was That One Thing You Always Wanted And Never Got?
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#112 Who Remembers This Movie?
Image credits: R3b3lli0n
