Age

I am 27 years old.  I proudly state my age to anyone who asks, and anyone who hasn't.  I will continue to do so every age that I am for the rest of my life.  I hate how society seems to think that it is 'rude to ask a woman her age'.  What a load of bollocks.  What is rude is the immediate implication that the 'person who should not be asked' is no longer young enough to be considered to be asked her age.  What an insult.  'How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?'  Bollocks. 

What then follows is the trickle on affect that it is not ok to get old. That getting old and/or being old is taboo.  We don't speak of getting old, we just stop sharing with people our real age.  But why?  Every single person on this planet has someone who is older than them, and someone who is younger than them.  Every single person is older than someone else, and younger than someone else.  Every single person accepts the age of someone else - for example, when you meet a 43 year old, you accept their age (whether or not they are telling the truth!) no matter what.  Same as when you meet a 20 year old, you will accept their age.  So why do you think that other people will not accept your own age?  

Obviously, our society places such big crapolas on top of people who are 'old', by portaying older men dating younger woman, by selecting younger models over older ones, by showing people in their 50s who are attempting (and kinda failing) to appear 20-something.  So it is easy to think that the person sitting opposite you isn't accepting your age.  But we just figured out that despite all the pressures of society, we still accept the stages of life that other people are at, when it really comes down to the nitty gritty. 

I think about age a lot, and i draw my own conclusions.  It is something I am really curious about, and if what I have said above is absolute bullshit please tell me. 

Another thing about age that dawned on me the other day is the expression 'you have your whole life ahead of you'.  It didn't really mean anything to me much, other than the general 'you're young, you can live your dreams and choose your career and be waht you want blah blah blah'.

But what I realised, is it much more than that.  Bare with me cos this will get confusing, I fear.  Ok, so I am 27.  I teach 17 year olds.  they are 10 years younger.  so by the time they are my age, I will be 37.  Everything I have lived since I was their age, they still get to do.  They have the next ten years to do it in, I have already done it.  they have their whole life ahead of them, because they have their whole life still in front of them.  But, for me, I am feeling old, like I have wasted the last 10 years, like I have all these younger people creeping up on me.  Which totally isn't true.  I have done awesome things.  But i am jealous that they still have the chance to live all that.  But wait a minute, someone who is currently 37 could say the same about me.   That I have the next ten years to live and they have wasted theirs.  Or what about a 47 year old who is looking back at 20 years ago.  and when I am 47, the amount of people 'underneath' me who has their whole life ahead of them would be astounding, people who still get to live their 20s, 30s and 40s!  Like I said, it can get confusing.  Your brain explodes if you think about it too much I swear.

There is always someone older, and always someone younger.  You are never old.  Unless you actually really are the oldest person alive.  and if you are, then seriously, you would be so stoked to be alive that you would be like hell yeah i am the oldest.  Everyday i now tell myself that I am not too old for anything.  For anyone.  Nor am I too young.  I am excited to turn 30, because it brings a new chapter to my life which should be even better than being 20-something.  I am excited to turn 70 cos i get to wear tea cosy hats and have lots of cats.  But I can do that at 27 too.  I just want to wait til i am 70.

The only guarntee in life is that we will get older.  So why the hell do we fight it so much? 

I actually did hate being 'old' for ages, I could see the fine lines in my skin that will evenutally become wrinkles.  I could feel my joints and muscles being not quite as limbre.  I could hear my friends saying that we were too old to go on the town or too old to have sleepovers.  The fear is the unknown - am i going to be unappealing when i am wrinkley?  Am I going to be unable to walk cos of my knees or back or hips?  I hated it. 

But now I actually love that I am getting older.  I love the fact that my 20s have been amazing, that I have learnt so much about being a human being, that I survived being a teenager and how awful it was.  I have gained some knowledge to use in my 30s to hopefully live my life a lot more to my liking because of how I have lived in my 20s.  I know my personality, I know my strengths and weaknesses, and at the end of the day, while I am sad to be no longer 23 or 18 or 21 or 25 (but not 24 or 26 they were bad) , I am proud to be 27 and instead of looking back I am looking forward. 

So start spreading the love of age.

p.s. I havent proof read this - I may never... I am sorry for the errors...