Tell Me Your Chronological Age, and the Age you Are In Your Mind.
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Tell Me Your Chronological Age, and the Age you Are In Your Mind.
Age is a number. Or is it two?
How old are you chronologically? In your mind? What accounts for the discrepancy? Write back and tell me in the comments.
Here’s my deal:
A month from today I will turn 56. In my mind, though, I’m much younger. When I picture myself, in the first split-second, I am 10 or 11. Sometimes I’m 15, or 25 or 35.
I can think of a few reasons this is the case for me. For instance, at my 10th birthday party at a bowling alley, after I lodged one of many gutter balls, my uncle said to me, “Well, you’ll never be one digit again.” I burst into tears, because I was shocked to learn I’d hit a milestone—one from which there was no turning back.
What other irreversible milestones lay ahead? Well, a big one: the following summer, my parents split up, and in the process prematurely converted me into a mini-adult. That year—1975/1976—was the first time I felt a discrepancy between my chronological age and the age I felt and acted. It has led to a life-long fascination with the whole idea of age and maturity, and what they mean at different times in our lives.
Tell Me Your Chronological Age, and the Age you Are In Your Mind.
My aunt asked this same question to the women in my family after a holiday dinner in 1989. Everyone went around the room and answered with ages younger than their actual ones. When it was my turn, I said, "36." This got a laugh because I was 18. At 51, 36 still makes sense. I feel responsible, contributory and sassy enough that people listen when I speak. I don't feel old because I've never felt particularly young.
We are a society that hates aging and undervalues anyone older than 50 especially women. I'm proud to say I feel exactly the age I am 51. It went fast and after getting stage III cancer at 39 I'm well aware of the preciousness of each and every day. Every year I'm different because I learned new things and the culture is ever evolving. As a wise person said the past is another country and we should be present right now because that's all we ever really have.