When was the day you realized you were "old"? ( no longer 18)

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

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The Sticks, Northeast PA.
When was the day you realized you were "old"? ( no longer 18)

It was when I was 51-52. As I said, I was a nurse in charge of a Psych. Ward. There was an 18 year old guy, who was trying to kill himself. At the time, my job was to hold one arm down , so we could get medication into him. He was a strong guy, and I had a hard time keeping his arm still. The medication finally worked, and he stopped trying to kill himself. One of the staff looked at me, with the "what is wrong with you" look. It was clear I didn't have the strength I had when I was 18. That's the day I knew I was "old".
 

The week after my wife passed in 2009, I knew I had to return to Texas to care for my elderly mom since I refused to see her marooned in a nursing home. The packing and readying for the move was debilitating both physically and mentally. Looking for a house to buy close to moms friends on top of putting life in temporary storage made me feel extremely old and frustratingly used up. The feeling has never left and only intensified after moms passing. So, if this is purgatory, I will do my time until It's my time to go, harming no one, helping when I can.....
 
About 5 yrs ago I realized just how old I was. I was filling in a new phone book and I noticed how many names I didn't have to save because they all had passed away.Aunts,
Uncles,cousins and close friends. Sadly many of them were much younger than me.The only 2 left from my Bridal Party were me and my Husband. So sad to have lost so many.
 

I've noticed a gradual slowing down over the years but what really brought it home was a few weeks ago, on my daily walk, instead of zipping through the park and making my way home, I realised my legs were aching and sat on a bench for five minutes before continuing on my way, my shopping seems much heavier lately too...:wink1:
 
When I stopped working I started to become invisible.

I became a smart mouthed 18 year old disguised as an old person, it has some advantages.

The other day at the grocery store the bag boy asked me if I needed help getting my groceries to the car. I told him no but if he would like to help me pay for them I would appreciate it. I knew when I said it that I could never out run him but my disguise saved me, LOL!
 
Ten years ago I fell off of a ladder,dislocated my knee and had a torn meniscus. It never really healed correctly even with rounds of physical therapy. I'm not in terrible pain but my knees feel stiff and ache. It has affected the other knee and my back as well. I just work through it everyday but it does make me feel old. I've heard that when your feet hurt you hurt all over. I think it is true with the knees as well. I'm just glad I can do what I do. I can still hike and keep up with the grand kids, I have my trusty old heating pads and ice packs and so far bounce back in a day or two.
 
For me it was just three years ago (age 79) when I took my clubs to a local driving range to practice. I hadn't played in four months because of moving and relocating. As I took my first practice swing to hit the ball I lost my balance and damn near fell over, then when I did make contact with the ball it was a pathetic 50 to 75 yds. It was at this point that I not only gave up golf but realized I wasn't what I was just five years earlier.
 
Usually it comes at the times when I find I have move up in those age brackets. You know, where you have to mark your age range---30-45 or 50-65 and you have moved up one.

But, I had an odd thing happen once when I was in my early 30's. I briefly dated a man who was about 6 years younger, making him still in his late 20's. He always seemed to find a way to work the age difference into conversations, usually when others were around. He was often "joking" about how OLD I was. I never felt we were at a point in our still fairly new relationship to make such jokes. I soon broke it off, for other reasons. Never looked back.
 
To some degree it hit me months ago when there was a commercial on t.v. for a local camera shop- it featured a young adult talking about trying something that had belonged to his GRANDFATHER: a camera that used FILM!!! gahhh!!!
 
When I tried scurrying across the street one day a couple of years ago. Since then, I've notice I can't scurry anymore---more like a fast mosey. :playful:
 
Several months ago, I tripped over some steel stock at work, that was carelessly left in a walkway. I didn't see it, as my arms were full of tools and materials we had just used on a job.

I went down like a ton of bricks. Both knees were ripped open and bleeding. My left knee got it worse, took A LOT of meat off, was in bandages over a month.

I felt old, or at least maybe too old to be in that environment. That incident was part of the reason I decided to just retire, and stop trying to be younger.
 
2012 when I was 56 and working at an auction house doing electrical safety tests on household appliances and had to help unload the vans with the youngster's I worked with.
 
One thing Aunt Bea said hit home. My girlfriend worked at the same place I did. I had to leave because I could not longer do the walking you do as a nurse. You don't realize how many of your friends are work related. And I broke up with my girlfriend, so some fellow workers felt like they were "betraying" her friendship if they still were friends with me. It was like Aunt Bea said, "you become invisible". Not one person from work ever called me.
 
Hello everyone..this is my first post here and what an appropriate thread to start out with (the reason I'm here :eek:). I'm 52 and started realizing I was getting "old" earlier this year - between hormonal changes (gotta love those hot flashes) and no longer having the energy and drive that I used to at work. Part of it could be that I've been in a stressful job for the past 10 years, I'm burned out and I stopped exercising. I'm job searching but it's depressing because I know I will need to take a cut in pay to get into another field. :( I'm looking forward to retirement already! I've always been in halfway decent shape but feel my age creeping up on me now. What I'm thankful for that I still have both parents living (mid 80's) and still living at home and independent, although my mom is beginning to show signs of declining.
 

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