When I hit 50,and started thinking I have more life behind me than in front of me now.

A few months ago I had a terrible nightmare. I dreamed that people kept telling me I was almost fifty, and I was in a panic trying to explain they were all making a mistake. I woke up covered in sweat, heart hammering, gasping with relief that it was just a dream. Then with a sudden, icy, existential stab of horror I realized… I am almost fifty.

I think my first experience was four or five years ago. I was in a meeting, helping a union organize a picket, and I suggested we antagonize the cops into a confrontation as a way of getting us on the news that night. They weren’t sure they could find someone arrestable to instigate it, and I volunteered to do it. One of the guys said, “You’re a senior organizer, you have responsibilities. You can’t be on the front line punching cops.”

At the time I was highly offended. What I heard was, “You’re too fat and old to mix it up with the cops, grampa.” It took me a really long time to admit to myself that the bruises and broken bones don’t heal the way they used to, and that there aren’t many people my age with my kind of experience; activism and organizing is a young man’s game. Because of that I have responsibilities beyond throwing bricks at cops to pass along what I’ve learned to the next generation.

Physically? When I noticed that a minor bruise or cut took a week to heal vs. a day or two.
Emotionally? When the bigger picture became more important than the ol’ “how does this impact me?”
Mentally? I’m not there yet. If anything, I’m more open and embracing to facts and opinions than I ever have been. They make me think. It’s stimulating.

Not “I’m getting old” but “I’m growing up”.

It becomes very liberating when you realize you’re getting old and it doesn’t really matter much.

When I turned 40. It depressed me terribly. And really, it’s when my body started to tell me it was aging. You know, in case I hadn’t figured that out.

When I turned 60.

@janbb, great place to be!

When I was 32, I broke a couple ribs playing football with friends.
I ended up taking 3 weeks disability. I was hurting for better than 6 weeks.
The realization that I was no longer able to play hard, and that it could have an impact on my job performance made me decide to stop the extremes football with my buddies.
A more recent example is that my back has become so bad that my wife wants me to rent a wheelchair when we are in Disneyland. I would rather cancel the trip than do that.

In my early forties, I was in the best shape of my life. In my fifties, I had to admit that I just couldn’t do the physical tasks I used to do, the chronic aches and pains were accumulating, and I was taking longer and longer to recover from minor injuries.

In my late fifties, I admitted to myself that I was no longer interested in keeping up with our rapidly changing technology. I’m OK with that, but it does make me wonder if I’ve become ‘one of those old people who are set in their ways’.

When I left my teens & hit twenty, thirty not so much, then forty came & I decided to continue living my life with a ten year old’s mind, bestest thing ever.

The last couple years. I am 55 now and have seen a surge of age related aches and pains and other little weirdnesses cropping up. It takes me several hours to get going in the mornings now because of sinus/allergy issues and my peak hours are from about 11 to 6. haha
Jeez…only 8:45 now and I have already been running amok and am NOT fully functioning yet, where’s my coffee cup?

My feelings about age tend to depend more on my circumstances at the time I age. 30 was a bitch for me, I was single and stuck in a rut at work, but 40 was easy as I was about to become a father for the first time. 50 wasn’t a hard birthday because I had so much crap going on in my life that my age wasn’t an issue. Yet 55 was hard because I realized I was fucking old! 55 puts one into a different demographic, at on line dating sites younger women cap out their search at 54, while older (65 and up) women will reach down to 55.

I turn 60 next month. In some respects it isn’t a big deal; in others it is disconcerting.

This year at age 38

13 years old. .. when recess was canceled for junior high.

What if you never feel old? So far I don’t and I had an aunt who lived to 90+, survived cancer twice, had multiple surgeries and was still young at heart when she was bedridden in her final days. I think I’ll wind up skidding my way out of life.

I’ll let you know

@StaceyD I’ll skid out too, young at heart for sure, but I’ve used my body to the max already, what cricks may come. haha

I am beginning to believe it now.

When I got bifocals.