Quote:
Originally Posted by Emigrations
When did you know you just weren't so young anymore?
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I'm 34 and male. I realized I wasn't so young anymore when:
-My music students looked at me with a puzzled expression when I referenced a "VCR".
-I discovered that not only does nobody use cassette tapes anymore but people have, en masse, rid themselves of their cassette players.
-Songs that were popular when I was in college were playing on the OLDIES station.
-My maximum weightlifting ability began to decrease in spite of not changing the workout routine I'd been using for years.
-Cars I remember seeing brand new on dealers' lots started sporting historic vehicle plates.
-The gray hairs started coming and the onslaught never let up.
-The random aches and pains started happening for no apparent reason.
-Illnesses I used to whip in three or four days started dragging on for twice that long.
-My metabolic rate dropped by 50% (evinced by my weight increasing dramatically despite no upward change in my eating habits).
-A girl I dated in college, who was only 1 1/2 years my senior, died of cancer.
-I stopped caring about technological advancement and obstinately dug my heels into the ground, saying things like "This was fine for me back then and it's fine for me now!"
-They stopped producing the Walkman.
-I transitioned from "I like being my age" to "I wish I could go back to when I was younger!" (Don'tcha hate that? First it's "I wish I was older so I could [blah], [blah], [blah]", then it's "It's cool being the age I am", then it becomes "I wish I could go back to being young again so that I wouldn't have to [blah], [blah], [blah]".)
-People with whom I was friends in high school and college started pumping out kids.
-I started seeking out healthy foods I once eschewed, such as fresh vegetables and oatmeal, and turned my back on my old friends Ramen noodles, hot dogs, potato chips, and Spaghetti-Os... all for the same reason.
-I started wishing I could go back in time, find my younger self, and beat some serious sense into him.
-Movies that were all the rage in my younger years got re-released under a banner including the word "Classic".
-I started to hate driving.
-I had my first day when I "just wasn't in the mood".
-I started going for months at a time without playing video games, and didn't care.
-I started using the phrase "When I was your age..."
-I switched from thinking about how great things will be in the future, to how great things seem to have been in the past.
-Kids started calling me old.
-My nose hairs and beard hairs started turning white, one by one.
And I can only imagine how this list will grow, the older I get. According to the kids, I'm old. According to the elderly people for whom I perform regularly, I'm "still a baby". The truth, as always, is somewhere between the extrema...