We live in a youth obsessed world. It has been that way for awhile, even when I was a youth. I am not gonna lie, there are drawbacks of getting older: the eyesight gets worse, your energy decreases and the waist line increases. However, there are also a lot of great things that come with aging. I have listed the five things that I like best about being in my fifties:
You don't have to worry about the cool kids liking you. After 40 no one is really cool anymore. I don't have any scientific evidence, but I think being hep peeks at age 35. Also, most people in their mid-30s are already somewhere in the journey of raising their own children. That in and of itself, takes most people out of the current zeitgeist and puts them squarely in a land of toddler/children's television for almost a decade. When you finally resurface, you are barely a shell of your former self. The next decade that follows is your teenagers being the ones fully emerged in pop culture, which by now, just seems ridiculous to you.
You don't have to worry about dressing cool. No one is making clothes for you anyway.(At best, you may be able to live through a cyclical fashion trend, where what you used to wear is now back in style.) When low rise jeans were the latest craze, I had to invest in really long shirts, as those pants gave me perpetual plumber's butt. My son loved those fashion years, as he could always tell me his favorite joke. "Hey Mom, you better hope the police don't come here or they will arrest you for 20 pounds of crack."
You are now a part of...."that's pretty good for someone in their 50s"club No matter what you take on, the expectations are super low. You start running and your time isn't great...people will make concessions because you hit the half-century mark. You can start anything,...sports, arts, weird hobbies and people will just applaud the effort. I suspect people in their 60s will become a part of the …"that's really brave of them to tackle that in their 60s" club.
You know you aren't invincible. In fact if you have made it this far, it is very likely you have outlived a lot of people, maybe some really beloved and important people. It isn't fun and it changes you, but it also takes away the cockiness of youth and you are reminded of how precious life is.
You know people are more worried about what they are doing than what you are doing. This is really the super secret sauce. All the time that you put into pleasing friends, neighbors, spouses, sassy PTA groups, etc. Most of the times they were worried about how they were presenting themselves and who they were trying to please. Once you figure that out, it's like a license to be as weird as you were meant to be.
I hope you all are able to be your best selves in 2023! Comment below, if you have unearthed any of life's secrets.
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