Outside of wrinkles, what was your rude awakening to getting old?

[Anonymous]

- Varicose veins
- Loose skin on my neck
- Reading glasses
- Talk more about aging parents than about our kids when out with friends

I’m 48.

[Anonymous]

I know more dead people than living. Life is slowly feeling like being on a Survivor Island game show that you don’t leave alive and you can’t change the channel, only watch yourself like being in a horror movie where you know death is coming but not how or when.

[Anonymous]

How much more tired I get doing things that never used to make me tired. I participated in a community garage sale and am completely exhausted. I only had two tables and did none of the advertising. I used to have huge garage sales and was barely tired at all. Now I feel like I need to rest for 3 days and my feet hurt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine involves literal rudeness.

A little self-entitled Gen Z girl pushed past my elderly father in a line to catch up with some friends. Didn't say excuse me or anything. Just literally pushed him aside. My father started to tell her off and she got combative. So I stepped in and told her to move along. She persists to argue so I repeated just move along. Finally, I told her to hush her mouth. She seemed shocked. She looked at me and asked, "How old are you?" (I'm 53). And then very seriously declared, "It's amazing that I'm only 25 and so much more mature than you."

Gen Z really is an obnoxious lot lacking in basic manners. But I've noticed a lot of ageism from them. It's wild.

I'm not sure it's age-ism but there is a lot of self-I don't know what the right term is bit it comes off as-protection.
I think a lot of it is the result of self-empowerment culture mixed in with the omnipresence of social media. One does not have to appease - which can manifest as being nice and pleasant. The emphasis is on how life should work and accommodate YOU (the id, the subject). It's a ramification of identity politics - you have to be you and don't suffer anybody else's microagressions. If you look a ads directed at that age group, no one is smiling. Instead, they all look like they are either judging you or daring you to judge them. It's a sort of passive confrontation. Apple's entire campaign for the past decade which targets that demographic is how you can't be you without their product that is presented as making you more YOU with their i-this and i-that gadgets. There's been a societal shift inward at mining one's own self actualization.
I conjecture that the social media aspect makes anything NOT on their social media radar non-existent and inconsequential to their lives which makes their own subjectivity even more grandiose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine involves literal rudeness.

A little self-entitled Gen Z girl pushed past my elderly father in a line to catch up with some friends. Didn't say excuse me or anything. Just literally pushed him aside. My father started to tell her off and she got combative. So I stepped in and told her to move along. She persists to argue so I repeated just move along. Finally, I told her to hush her mouth. She seemed shocked. She looked at me and asked, "How old are you?" (I'm 53). And then very seriously declared, "It's amazing that I'm only 25 and so much more mature than you."

Gen Z really is an obnoxious lot lacking in basic manners. But I've noticed a lot of ageism from them. It's wild.

I'm not sure it's age-ism but there is a lot of self-I don't know what the right term is bit it comes off as-protection.
I think a lot of it is the result of self-empowerment culture mixed in with the omnipresence of social media. One does not have to appease - which can manifest as being nice and pleasant. The emphasis is on how life should work and accommodate YOU (the id, the subject). It's a ramification of identity politics - you have to be you and don't suffer anybody else's microagressions. If you look a ads directed at that age group, no one is smiling. Instead, they all look like they are either judging you or daring you to judge them. It's a sort of passive confrontation. Apple's entire campaign for the past decade which targets that demographic is how you can't be you without their product that is presented as making you more YOU with their i-this and i-that gadgets. There's been a societal shift inward at mining one's own self actualization.
I conjecture that the social media aspect makes anything NOT on their social media radar non-existent and inconsequential to their lives which makes their own subjectivity even more grandiose.

I also have to add, I can't imagine dating anyone of those unsmiling sullen looking people in the ads. They seem too self-absorbed to be capable of a relationship or even having a family. The people on the NYC Bumble ad look bothered and annoyed.

[Anonymous]

When I realized that I was now coloring my hair out of necessity vs. fun.

😭

[Anonymous]

That first white hair down there.

[Anonymous]

45 y/o here.

Big changes are feeling more tired after a bout of activity despite a lifetime of being physically active and vigorous. I used to work out for a few hours and then after a brief rest I could tackle yard work or DIY jobs around the house with the same vigor. Body now feels more sore, muscles more tense, none dramatically so but enough where it never existed before, and it's definitely slowing down the rush to move into the next activity.

Eyesight is starting to change. Need new glasses!

I'm determined to keep myself as active as possible and am working on keeping the core as strong as possible. I don't care about the other aspects of aging on my appearances but I don't like this creep of starting to feel more tired when I never did before.

[Anonymous]

I’m the same age as the new Pope. Ouch!

[Anonymous]

Pain

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grey pubes....not cool

Full bu$h?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The clothes I wore as a teenager/college student came back into style.

This!!!!!! It really struck me and made me realize my age.

[Anonymous]

10 pm used to be the start of the night. Now it’s when I’d like to crawl into bed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catching my reflection in windows and seeing my mother. 😳

This, and my eyebrows have migrated to my chin.

My eyebrows are disappearing.

[Anonymous]

Becoming harder in personality- not caring what people think of me, or about them. I no longer filter what I say nor get offended by what others say too, I laugh instead. I din’t feel bad ghosting people.