And failing to burn the right ones.

The family is one thing, and I think most people expect that.

But something about seeing all the actors and singers and whatever people slowly get SUPER old and die, and constantly replaced with new people you dgaf about who are younger than you, just reminds you that the world is slowly becoming not for your parents, then not for you, and then not for people who are younger than you. And then THOSE people get old and you think “Jesus Christ how old am I?”

I’m not looking forward to it, but suppose I should just embrace it.

I wonder if the correct way to do this is to find stuff you actually care about, and stick with it. So that “outside” remains as outside, and “my interests” remain in my vision.

Or maybe there’s nothing really to do besides know it’s coming and brace my anis?

It’s been my peer group, and relatives my age, that have affected me the most.

My parents were both old, were in good shape until very near the ends of their lives, and went fast. But with people who are very old, you can get some of your mourning done in advance. It’s not that big of a surprise when they check out.

Yeah, you realize how many “friends” were just acquaintances and disappear.

Happy cake day!

Which is why it’s a good skill to learn to be comfortable being alone. Had to learn this the hard way my first year of living on campus and not really gelling socially with my dormmates.

Being neurodivergent and coming from high school where most of my friendships were formed from convenience made forming new friendships complicated in college.

I have noticed this as well. I joke with the students that us old guys all look the same so they’ll have trouble telling us apart for awhile. But it’s true.

Until like 5-10 years ago, I’ve been traveling a lot, and in the evening, I’d take the tram or go on foot, sometimes 30-60 minutes, and go to bars, restaurants, no problem. In some city that’s completely unknown to me. After pretty heavy drinking and with just a few hours of sleep, I’d get up in the morning and travel on.
Nowadays, when checking in after, let’s say, a 2 hours journey, all I want to do is watch TV in my suite, end of story.
As to 3.: That can still happen, and it’s quite rewarding when it does. Just a few months ago, I’ve been turning heads again because I started dating a cover model for dentist’s office magazines. All eyes were glued to them wherever we went.
Then one day, you’re sitting all sobered up in some hotel room with what suddenly appears to be the phoniest person on the planet, and you start to realize beauty isn’t all there is.

Nah it’s the cans that are getting tighter !

My personal theory is that this is kinda like an “echo” in Minority Report.

Basically, when you’re still fresh, everything is new. Brain is like “Write this down! Interesting!”

But a lot of adult life stops being an adventure. You clock in and out, automatically say “fine thanks, you?” to the thousandth “how’s it goin” that year, drive the same route to and from the job, the grocery store, etc…

The brain has seen this before. The experience isn’t novel. It tosses it out with the trash. Why hang on to a million copies of "Went_to_Work_did_stupid_job_had_reheated_chicken.mp4" ? You also are getting crappier sleep, so things don’t record as readily to long term storage.

Heck, I would clock in, hear the stupid “ding” sound, and legit not be sure if I actually just did that or if my brain was recalling the billion other times I’ve done it, 30 seconds later.

So anyway, I guess what I’m saying is, the key to a long experienced life might be to keep your brain “guessing” by switching things up, trying things differently, always learning new skills, trying to interact with different kinds of people.

The endless, rote, routine is a certain kind of hell.

Anyway, I’m no neurologist or anything, just another frustrated working class, but I think I’m on the money here lol.

Yup, a week is such a long time in school, I’m in my thirties and I see months go by so quickly

I’m 60 and gave seen a lot of water under that bridge. A really good friend of mine who is in their early 40s and just got a cancer diagnosis this week. It never gets easier.

It never stops feeling weird and shocking to me how many people I’ve known that died before age 30.

Well I’m guess I’m lucky that I don’t have friends.

First you go to birthday parties, then party parties, then graduation parties, bachelor/bachelorette parties, weddings, your friend’s kid’s parties then funerals

My best friend since childhood died last year and that just destroyed me. Lost my mom just a couple months later which made things worse, but not as much as everyone thinking losing my mom was the only major loss I’ve had in the last year. I hate how much losing my friend seems to just get ignored when talking to even my therapist about all the things that has happened to me over the last year.

Rampant discrimination against older people, especially women is crazy and something you don’t fully notice until you or your peers are affected directly.

I hear old people talk about this, but then they run every large business and government, have most of the money, and get like the majority of government services as well.

The fastest rise in homeless demographic are women over 50. GOP are directly putting your mothers and grandmothers on the street effectively murdering them

My life got better as I got older, but I don’t live in the States, so maybe that’s a factor.

Bold of you to assume it’s going to stop after I die, fully expect to be reanimated and used as cheap labour at this rate.

I’ve got good news for you!

I had a reckless youth. I literally never thought about being old let alone plan for it. So here I am and I still don’t have a vision for it. My wife and I talk about this all the time because we have both moved a lot during our careers and don’t have a natural home. With compromises we can probably live anywhere.

Missed the college and house, but right there with you.

We definitely must endeavor to find our path in life, besides that of the “citizen unit” that simply contributes to the economy and population then passes the torch.

Tyler Durden?

Hope you had more good times than bad

I’m 70. Nothing hurts. It’s not inevitable, though the odds worsen as you age.

Exercise helps. Stretching is more challenging, though. You need to go slow and maintain correct form or you’ll wish you had.

What really sucks is that friends and family my age are getting ill and dying at an accelerating rate.

It’s an underrated tragedy.

I’m not ancient, but I do think about all the shit I had to painstakingly learn, and that everyone who’s born has to painstakingly learn it all again.

I think you just need to drink more?