What was your "oh snap, I'm old now" moment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think mine was an unexpected cardiac issue... random bout of AFib... doctor ran every test in the book and said, "Look, you're 40, you work too hard, and you treat your body like you have the metabolism of a 22 year old, you need to start taking care of yourself."

You mean, I'm not invincible anymore?

Grey hair photo with young vibrant sons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a 42 year old college professor.

I've always felt like I remember being in my undergrads' shoes and can relate to them somewhat. A few years ago they started frequently saying things like "Oh you're just like my mom!" or "My mom says the same thing!" which is normal but a sobering shift.

I just hired someone born in 2003. That makes me feel super old.

[Anonymous]

My teenaged students now gently explain any new, trendy words/terms they happen to use because they realize I probably won't know.

Also, there has been a shift from being the cool young teacher they want to impress to viewing me as a mom figure for whom they just behave without argument. I'm fine with this. I can walk in a classroom and achieve instant on-task focus. Ironically, I think parents might respect me less than the very young, cool teachers, though .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a 42 year old college professor.

I've always felt like I remember being in my undergrads' shoes and can relate to them somewhat. A few years ago they started frequently saying things like "Oh you're just like my mom!" or "My mom says the same thing!" which is normal but a sobering shift.

I just hired someone born in 2003. That makes me feel super old.

I'm a high school teacher and occasionally a kid will accidentally call me Mom now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My neck. Ugh.

oh man same!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My neck. Ugh.

oh man same!!

Oh mine too. I hate seeing it on Zoom calls and I think I'm going to move to mock neck turtlenecks. My aunt had a neck lift and it looks fab.

[Anonymous]

Upcoming knee replacements

[Anonymous]

They happen all the time!

Most recently asking myself why they remade Presumed Innocent so soon after the original, then reading: “Presumed Innocent is a 1990 American legal thriller film based on the 1987 novel…”

[Anonymous]

I threw out my back picking up a sock.

I realized that I’m old enough to be the mother of my coworkers.

[Anonymous]

We hosted an au pair a few years back and after the interview I really expected us to be friendly/sisterly. After she arrived she would refer to me in "mom" terms often and clearly saw me as a mother figure. I was only 10 years older than her (she was 25, me 35) but it was shocking to realize I wasn't anything like young anymore. I was an unrelatable old mom.

[Anonymous]

Both my grandmothers lived to around 100 and I had always imagined my mom and I would live long lives as well. When my mom passed away suddenly at 68 I could not wrap my mind around the fact that I was more than halfway through my life if I live the same number of years she did. I felt like my life had just gotten settled and started in my 30s. I was still in the babies and early-ish career phase and all of a sudden I was faced with the reality that this could already be the downhill. Of course anyone could go at any time, but it really hit me hard that I'm not young.

[Anonymous]

I just got back from the beach. Same beach house and room we always stay in. But this time I couldn’t sleep because the mattress was as hard as a rock. And now my hips and lower back hurt and I can barely move.

I’m 39. Oww my back.

[Anonymous]

See my fat *ss in the Nordstrom mirror trying on drawstring pants

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Servers started asking me if I wanted the senior discount.

And this started before I was even 55. 🤬🤬🤬

Servers started giving me the senior discount without asking me if i wanted it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My neck. Ugh.

oh man same!!

Oh mine too. I hate seeing it on Zoom calls and I think I'm going to move to mock neck turtlenecks. My aunt had a neck lift and it looks fab.

I have a life-changing tip for you: turn off your self-view on Zoom and hide yourself from yourself on Google Meets.

At risk of curdling this conversation - my "I'm old" moments have been a lot of realizing how much I hate the way young people talk about some parts of life. When that story came out a while ago about Aziz Ansari and young people thought he deserved to lose everything over it - and to me it just sounded like a bad date but not catastrophically so. I just can't really wrap my head around how little tolerance young people seem to have for the messiness of humans interacting with other humans. I hate it, actually. Hating it, makes me feel old.

Now seeing young people's reactions to Gaza has made me feel extremely old.

Also seeing weird smokers lines around my lips even though I don't smoke. Overall I think I am still sort of passing as younger than I am - but I do see telltale signs.