Dying might suck, but growing old isn’t all that much easier. It’s all of those sudden realizations that time keeps on moving and your body is ever so slowly fading into nothingness. Each time it hits hard.
And folks on Reddit have been discussing those very instances of life letting them know that their expiration date is approaching. Without telling them when it actually is, of course.
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So, one Redditor recently approached the AskReddit community with the question what made you realize you are not young anymore? A heavy-hitting question, to be honest, and even more so for those in their older years.
While the upvotage was on the modest side, clocking in at a bit over 1,000 upvotes, it engaged quite a bunch of people across 3,700 comments.
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Growing old is definitely a surreal feeling—one that might have some overlap with the overall human experience, but mostly it feels very personal. After all, we all experience the world through very slightly nuanced senses, our fates are different, just like our choices in life, and thus we end up with a slightly different result in the end, making our golden years either great or not as much. If at all existent.
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But, there is overlap. A shared experience. Journalist and author Tim Dowling shared his take on becoming 60, and it’s pretty spot on.
Among the 13 points, he listed everything from physical to mental to experiential changes that he went through in his life.
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First, interestingly, is the idea that the real difference between being young and growing old is not physical, nor mental. It’s rather just the cumulative weight of all the years left behind you. Time doesn’t grant wisdom. It just progresses and gets compressed into what feels like a timespan that happened a week or two ago.
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Another factor of being old is having to deal with the colossal amount of everything that you’ve probably completely forgotten about over the years. Past holiday experiences, books read, shows watched, friends had—all of it gets shed with time. And that’s fine. Your brain simply conserves space by forgetting things it doesn’t really need.
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There also comes a time when sitting down and standing up means making noise. It’s either your knees giving out a pop or you doing what realistically is an involuntary groan.
And there might be an experience when you might think someone’s following you around the store—turns out, it’s just your reflection.
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According to statistics, at least, older folks generally grow to be happy. You might think old age means everything hurts and you’re closer to the end than you have been ever before, but it’s probably all the free time you get to focus on yourself.
But that might always be the case. Age kills ambition because you realize that everyone dies, nothing matters or are hit by a similar sobering realization.
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On a lighter note, though, you might notice how older folks always keep the radio (or their equivalent of audio equipment) on. If you’re wondering why they do that—it’s just always been on. You can turn it off once we’re gone.
Also, something to look forward to: older folks tend to be more careful. Despite having avoided every pitfall in life thus far, but still, don’t take risks.
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Monotasking also becomes a thing. Mostly because multitasking has become absolutely impossible (pst, it never was, but keep living that lie), but that just means your efforts to foster discipline have not been in vain at this point.
Last, but not least, resistance to change. Old folks hate change because they have to do time and time again, and they’re done doing that across many decades
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So, what are your thoughts on any of this? Are you looking forward to being old and frail because you’re gonna have (relatively speaking) all the time in the world? Share your thoughts and stories in the comment section below!
And if you need another hit of the old, we have more.
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