This is basically a brain dump- sorry.
I turned 21 this month.
Most people’s minds go straight to “legal drinking!” while mine goes to, “Wow. You’re really old. Everything goes downhill from here.”
Every year, I have a very bittersweet birthday. Wake up, feel funny, figure out what businesses give free things away on birthdays, celebrate, mentally freak out over my age, and then the day’s over.
Gerascophobia– it’s the fear of getting older. Apparently, it’s one of the most common fears now, as in about 87% of Americans (according to a Pfizer Study),
One day, I’m scared I’m going to wake up and not recognize myself in the mirror.
I always tell people that mentally, I’m still way younger than my actual age. Will it always be that way?
Especially living in the world we’re in today, I feel like everyone has an obsession with youth.
I see people getting botox and face-lifts at a super young age and I’m like, are we really starting this early? (I mean, I guess so. I found my first grey hair last month.)
I’m in my 20s now. I’m never going to be 16 again in high school, and I think that’s what makes me the saddest.
I miss the worst part of my life being the fact that I got a bad grade on a test, or that I embarrassed myself in the lunchroom.
Every birthday, I always have this dark cloud over my head that keeps reminding me I’ll never get my childhood back, which is pretty sad. I spend so much of my time wishing to relive the past… when I’m literally only 21. Isn’t my life just beginning?
I mean obviously, we’re not in the ancient times when people only lived to 30, so I’d like to say I still have a good chunk of life left in me.
Anyway, so I started looking for motivational quotes about getting older so I wouldn’t be completely sad, so I’m gonna take this section to share some with anyone else who’s scared of aging.
“Oh, the worst of all tragedies is not to die young, but to live until I am seventy-five and yet not ever truly to have lived.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“Since our society equates happiness with youth, we often assume that sorrow, quiet desperation, and hopelessness go hand in hand with getting older. They don’t. Emotional pain or numbness are symptoms of living the wrong life, not a long life.” – Martha Beck
“Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.” – Satchel Paige
So basically, after reading all of these and just simply getting over myself, I realized that aging doesn’t always equal bad. Sure, memories can be bittersweet and nostalgia can hit hard sometimes, but as much as it hurts, you can’t go back in time.
I’m trying my best to let those memories of being a child stay as a happy thought rather than a wish to go back.
So listen up folks, don’t fret about growing up- everyone does it.
I’m scared too, but I can’t let that overpower my will to enjoy every moment of my age now.