People Share How They Realized They’re Not That Young Anymore (39 Answers)

Dying might suck, but growing old isn’t all that much easier. It’s all of those sudden realizations that time keeps on moving and your body is ever so slowly fading into nothingness. Each time it hits hard.

And folks on Reddit have been discussing those very instances of life letting them know that their expiration date is approaching. Without telling them when it actually is, of course.

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So, one Redditor recently approached the AskReddit community with the question what made you realize you are not young anymore? A heavy-hitting question, to be honest, and even more so for those in their older years.

While the upvotage was on the modest side, clocking in at a bit over 1,000 upvotes, it engaged quite a bunch of people across 3,700 comments.

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Growing old is definitely a surreal feeling—one that might have some overlap with the overall human experience, but mostly it feels very personal. After all, we all experience the world through very slightly nuanced senses, our fates are different, just like our choices in life, and thus we end up with a slightly different result in the end, making our golden years either great or not as much. If at all existent.

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But, there is overlap. A shared experience. Journalist and author Tim Dowling shared his take on becoming 60, and it’s pretty spot on.

Among the 13 points, he listed everything from physical to mental to experiential changes that he went through in his life.

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First, interestingly, is the idea that the real difference between being young and growing old is not physical, nor mental. It’s rather just the cumulative weight of all the years left behind you. Time doesn’t grant wisdom. It just progresses and gets compressed into what feels like a timespan that happened a week or two ago.

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Another factor of being old is having to deal with the colossal amount of everything that you’ve probably completely forgotten about over the years. Past holiday experiences, books read, shows watched, friends had—all of it gets shed with time. And that’s fine. Your brain simply conserves space by forgetting things it doesn’t really need.

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There also comes a time when sitting down and standing up means making noise. It’s either your knees giving out a pop or you doing what realistically is an involuntary groan.

And there might be an experience when you might think someone’s following you around the store—turns out, it’s just your reflection.

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According to statistics, at least, older folks generally grow to be happy. You might think old age means everything hurts and you’re closer to the end than you have been ever before, but it’s probably all the free time you get to focus on yourself.

But that might always be the case. Age kills ambition because you realize that everyone dies, nothing matters or are hit by a similar sobering realization.

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On a lighter note, though, you might notice how older folks always keep the radio (or their equivalent of audio equipment) on. If you’re wondering why they do that—it’s just always been on. You can turn it off once we’re gone.

Also, something to look forward to: older folks tend to be more careful. Despite having avoided every pitfall in life thus far, but still, don’t take risks.

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Monotasking also becomes a thing. Mostly because multitasking has become absolutely impossible (pst, it never was, but keep living that lie), but that just means your efforts to foster discipline have not been in vain at this point.

Last, but not least, resistance to change. Old folks hate change because they have to do time and time again, and they’re done doing that across many decades

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So, what are your thoughts on any of this? Are you looking forward to being old and frail because you’re gonna have (relatively speaking) all the time in the world? Share your thoughts and stories in the comment section below!

And if you need another hit of the old, we have more.

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Watching the “lil” rappers (lil pump, lil _insert name here_) score millions of likes on YouTube for some of the most awful music that has ever been unleashed on the world.Having to scroll for my birth year to show up.When a song from my youth plays on the radio and the dj calls it a classic or an oldie.For me, it’s when celebrities pass away. I’m always like, ‘No way! They’ve been around since I was….’ Oh no! The math is the worst part.I turned on the Grammy awards and I had no clue who the majority of performers were. Years ago I knew all of them.TikTok....when that app dropped I just instantly morphed into a dinosaur.When I started acting like my parents and want to stay home then rather going to parties. Feel excited for decorating or cleaning my house.Got out of shower. Sat on bed to put clothes on. Sat on my balls. F**k it. I had a good run. Hand me my cane.Hitting my mid 50's and realising that I was broke and would be working the rest of my life just to survive.My 80th birthday was a clue.The moment I started considering 9 PM as "late" and got excited about buying a new type of vacuum cleaner.Waking up with back/neck pain cause I slept in the wrong position.When I had to ask, “what the f**k is a Rizz?”.My knees crack when I get up. Also, I do that weird dad groan while doing it.There's a haircut that gen z/alpha have that pisses me off. I hate that I now get upset by a haircut. I don't want to be old.I'm from the Netherlands were instead of **you** we have two different words for it. We say "jij" to someone that's younger than you or equal to your age or in informal settings. We say "u" to people that are older and in formal settings. I'm 28 and suddenly younger people in restaurants or stores say "u" to me. That's when I realized I'm getting old.I've been out of high school for about as long as current teenagers have been alive.I call these moments "coffin nails" 1. The first was when I worked at a record store and when chatting with a customer, said customer's kid asked "what's Atari?" 2. Later, a friend of mine worked with teens, one of those teens asked me if I was a skater "back in the day" making me realize my youth was in fact "back in the day" to some people. 3. Hearing music I loved as a teen/young adult on "classic" radio stations. 1. Also being mocked for listening to radio. 4. A couple years ago, I found out I was the same age as a co-worker's mother. 5. As of last year, 2 of my brother's 3 kids are old enough to drink. 6. Just now realizing I'm the same age now as Wilford Brimley was in Cocoon. It just keeps coming :D.I can no longer function on 4 hours sleep.When kitchen gadgets excite you.Hangovers are longer and heavier, lol.The constant aches and pains. But the big one was when my hobbies and daydreams changed to stuff like gardening, canning, crocheting, and fixing up my property.Coming home from wherever work would send me and trying to hang out with friends. Realizing we had nothing in common anymore beyond the memories. When buying alcohol at a supermarket someone asked me for ID, and it made me laugh out loud! Also made my day ! I was 42,.The oldies station was playing songs and I remember when they were released.Young people p**s me off and I'm not even 30.I remember going to a Best Buy many years ago and the guy ringing the order up looked at my license and said "holy s**t, you were born the year I graduated from high school. I considered myself relatively young until just this moment." I now get where he was coming from.When I started getting a little bit of gray around my temples and in my beard. When those "you must have been born before [today's date - 21 years] to legally purchase alcohol" signs started displaying dates after my high school graduation. And when I started waking up with random aches, despite not having injured myself recently.The mirror and the stairs.When I realized that there are people born after me who are now old enough to be president.When a coworker who was in his early 20s didn't know who Jimi Hendrix was.Asked out a cute girl. At the date, she asked me how old I was. When I told her, she said "yeah, that's a problem". In my defense, I did not realize she was as young as she was. Apparently I don't look my age either.Oh and also that I’ve had piercings longer than I havent.When I'm no longer the youngest at work anymore.I feel guilty for wasting time now.How many of my posts were saying, "I remember..." and talking about how things used to be.For me, it was moving cities. I was in a sleepier part of the country that had an older population so I didn’t feel my age. Move to where I am now where there is a lot more younger people and I now feel old.Responsibilities.When I realized I could eat burger for breakfast andno one to forbid me to do that ou buying my on candy whit a money that I owend myself. Being adult can be dope sometimes.