Age

In the next two weeks your father is going to be 33 years old, and your mother 26.  To you, that probably sounds really old.  When you're a child, these numbers are quite large in terms of age.  This does remind me of a story though.

Back in 2001, one of my friends turned 21 and complained about how "old" she felt.  At 21 years old!  I was freshly 26 myself at the time, and I thought "oh man, you are SO young you don't even know it, it's me who should feel old."  Of course, the irony of it all... is that at 33, I can think back 7 years to being 26, and how young I used to be back then compared to now.

Having many friends in their late 20's now, I've been called "the old man" as a running joke for some time.  I've also heard friends in their late 20's talk about how old they feel.  When your mom and I spend time with our friends who are currently in their 40's and 50's, they roll their eyes at how young we are and say that we're just "babies".

The "old" joke is overplayed and will always be mentioned by your younger friends right around college.  It never ends, and for good reason.  You will always feel older than you used to be, wax poetic about the yesteryears, and see the changes between yourself "then" and "now".  But you should never feel "old".  Not for a good long time.

See, sometime between 2001 and now, I realized how dumb it was to feel old at any age under 60 or 70.  Your grandmothers only recently turned 60, and they're both so strong to this day.  Let's go back to that friend of mine who felt old at 21.  The next birthday she'd have, at 22, she'd feel oldER.  And then again at 23.  On and on... for the rest of her life.  She will always feel "old" from a prime youth of 21.  That, to me, is sad.  Nobody under 40 should feel "old", as I'm sure any 50-year old can tell you.  (Once you're in your 40's you're still not "old", but moreso objectively "middle-aged" as life expectancy I project at roughly 80 years old.)

So instead of feeling old at whatever age you're currently at, know that 5 years from now you'll look back at this age as "your youth", and think about what you want to remember.  Do you want to say "Wow I was so depressed that I was old, and now I realize that I was young back then", or do you want to say "I enjoyed that time of my life and I'm continuing to do so today."

When people in their 20's grumble about being old, it's really their loss by never feeling young.  Enjoy your time now, whatever age you are, because life can be pretty incredible, and every day you start the rest of your life.