Age ain’t nothing but a number – they say. I always felt and looked older than my actual age. I behaved as one too. During one of our conversations in the fitness class, each one of us were telling the other about how long we would like to live. When I was in my 20’s I had this view that I will be completing my life’s important activities (like work,marriage – if that happened, kids – if I got lucky, own house etc) by 60 and then keep that as my age when I am ready to depart the world. Nothing much happened (or rather lot of things happenend and unhappened) but I think I would still like to depart by 60 or maximum by 65. I would like to and not that I would, just to clarify. And I would love to age gracefully, not in terms of looks but in terms of health mostly. I see my mom now at 62 and the various health problems she faces. It hurts me to see her struggling with one or the other issue. She is one of the primary reason I forced myself to join the fitness class and am trying to keep my health in check (and the other reason is the various injuries that I sustained last year). With so many kinds of health issues coming up, we are asked to get the regular health check for cancer related issues done especially when we reach 35 (and for women there are a whole of other checkups they suggest). And I am still trying to get them done even though I left 35 almost 2.5 years back. I have plans to do this by September, at any cost. If you reach 60, you are supposed to get a new Driver’s license because they are not very sure of your eyesight after that. My dad, who is almost 65, had to get it done a few years back. You are expected by the society to have a family and probably a kid on or before 30. One woman in my class was so aghast that I wasn’t married at this age (and I was too lazy to explain her that I once was). After all this I wonder : Is age still just a number ?
A man’s age is something impressive, it sums up his life: maturity reached slowly and against many obstacles, illnesses cured, griefs and despairs overcome, and unconscious risks taken; maturity formed through so many desires, hopes, regrets, forgotten things, loves. A man’s age represents a fine cargo of experiences and memories. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
This post is coming in a little early than usual (my early Saturday but probably a late Friday for the other hemisphere) and I am not probably coherent because it is too early, 4.15 am , for me. I will be going out on a day trip today and probably will be in very late, so I might not be able to respond to comments until tomorrow. See you all soon and stay safe.
Post for this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: young, old, or anything to do with age. That’s it! Have fun!
Books, Music, Photography, & Movies 
Yes it is just a number 🙂 Sadly though, one that society still likes to judge us by, especially in Asian ones. But with confidence it won’t bother us because the truth is achieving certain things by a certain age does not necessarily make one happy.
LikeLike
You are right, not all things that we attempt to achieve certain things by a certain age makes us happy. Thank you for the read and the comment 🙂
LikeLike
It is a number that keeps growing, never diminishing. Though the older you get despite the things that go wrong through no fault of your own stuff does impact on you, but never is there the thought that its time to lets go. Most aging people I know live life as fully as they can, a little slower, despite their minds thinking they are still 30 their bodies reminding them that they are way past that age, sadly. Enjoying hat we have seems to be the way to go. enjoyed your post, gave me, obviously, something to think about.
LikeLike
I hope I never get to the point to let go. I am a little too stubborn for something like that to happen. I guess, I just have to take life as it comes 🙂 Thank you for the read and the comment.
LikeLike
The pressures others put on people based on age are so frustrating to me. I do think age is just a number. What matters is that we live our lives in ways that gives us peace and satisfaction, not being focused on numbers. Thanks for your thought-provoking post, and good luck on your day trip!
LikeLike
Thank you and I did have a wonderful trip.
You are right, we just have to ignore the numbers and just take it as it comes. Thank you for the read and the comment 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was 32 when I had my first child. He’ll be 13 next year, and my SOCS post this week deals with the prejudices on his end of the age spectrum…
I hope you fins healing and pleasure in your fitness class, and in life. At 45, I have let go of a lot of things, and held onto others for dear life, and I am the most content, centered, and happy I’ve ever been.
I hope you find that, even if it doesn’t look anything like society says it should. My soon to be teen? He’s never attended a day of school in his life, and lots of people would think that’s shocking- but then, they haven’t had the pleasure of meeting him…
Life on my own terms is the only way I know how to live. =D
LikeLike
And that way I think is the best way 🙂 There are a lot of prejudices around us, sadly. I hope that I find the peace and content too , some day. My best regards and wishes to your son.
Thank you so much for the read and the wonderful comment 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Addressing these prejudices openly and without ridiculing anyone is a good way to lessen them. Glad you shared this!
LikeLike
Very true 🙂 and Thank you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember a colleague of my boyfriend asked him when he was turning 29 if there were going to be any babies… My boyfriend answered “No, I’m not sure we are going to have kids” (Yes, none of us are really that into having kids.. I can wait – or maybe not have any at all!). Then his colleague was so baffled by the answer that he asked “What are you going to then?” – pretty good answer from my boyfriend was “Live!”.
Unfortunatly to some people age is a measurement of what you have accomplished in your life. To me it’s just a number. A number that can tell the tale of days I have lived.
All I can hope for is that you live the life you wish to live and that you are happy with your life. That I count as important no matter what!
LikeLike
Thank you Maggie 🙂 And yes, people have a very set ways of measuring life by age and its numbers. It sure is scary sometimes but I guess, it is always better to take life as it comes and just forget about the numbers. Need to remember that.
LikeLike
Write it on a note and hang it somewhere you see every now and then 🙂
LikeLike
Will have to do that 🙂
LikeLike
A number that can be altered to fit the real you. Nice post
LikeLike
Thank you John 🙂 I do hope so too.
LikeLike
I like what John said.
I remember when I was a teenager, spewing out that line to my elders “Age is just a number.” Now, to hear someone say it who is thirty-odd years younger than me makes me think, yeah, wait ’til you get to my age. I don’t think age is a number as much as it is a concept. It’s true, it is what you make it AND what you have made of it in the years past. Taking a fitness class, for instance, is likely to make your 62 younger than your mother’s 62. It’s more than a number. And at the same time it doesn’t matter – until someone asks you how old you are and you have to think to remember. 😉
LikeLike
🙂 I am not sure if it will ever come to that, even though I would love to. But yeah, at the end I have to take life as it is and hope that the age , even though it did matter to what I am at that moment, will not matter to what I will be.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love that quote. Great post.
LikeLike
Thank you 🙂
LikeLike
“I think I would still like to depart by 60 or maximum by 65.” Well, as someone who is there and beyond, I am certain that you will feel differently when you get to 60 or 65! 😉
LikeLike
🙂 I hope so Doobster.
LikeLike
KG – when I was young, 30 was old, Once I hit 25, I just knew I wouldn’t make it to 50 ’cause that was just OLD. I am now almost 53. I have close friends who are in their 70s, 60s, 50s, 40s and early 30s (& a few in their 20s). My grandmas just recently passed away in the last 2 years – one lived to be 89, almost making 90 & the other lived to be 99. Though some of my “stuff” doesn’t work as well as it used to – I am so damn glad to be alive & kicking & I hope to be around as long as I can get up & get to the bathroom by myself – however old that may be. I am also a firm believer that some of the best days of my life have not yet happened!!!! [My grandmas would say that at 65 – one is just a baby LOL!!]
Enjoyed your post!! ☮
LikeLike
Thank you Sadie 🙂
My dad gets cranky when I call him an old man. I needed the positive reinforcements on life. Thanks again.
All the very best for the best days that are yet to come 🙂
LikeLike
I know people in their seventies who are healthier than when they were younger, healthier than me! What if will things get better as we go along, and why follow someone else’s rules for when or if we do things? I hope you’ll change your mind about the time when you depart. I enjoyed your post. Thank you.
LikeLike
Thank you for the read and the comment 🙂
With the kind of feedback i have received I am more than convinced to take life as it comes and see what happens. I hope the changes that happen here on will help me live healthier and happier and may be longer.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m so glad. 🙂
LikeLike