Age Is Just A Number

This week I turned the ripe “old” age of sixty-five years. This is a milestone in our culture. The age where I am eligible for Medicare and Social Security. Senior discounts and AARP benefits. In our lifetimes we got through a lot of age milestones. Thirteen puts you in your teen years. Eighteen and twenty one allow you special privileges like driving and buying alcohol and cigarettes. You are an adult.

(the photo is me at 21)

Thirty brings you “middle aged”. Forty and fifty are suddenly old to twenty somethings. But sixty-five makes you old as dirt. Or does it?

I started solo traveling in my fifties. I wrote my first book in my sixties. My mother is ninety-four and in an independent living apartment walking her dog several times a day. And both my grandmothers lived to nearly one hundred, so I think I have pretty good genes going in my favor. I exercise regularly and eat fairly healthy. Many times, this week I was told I did not look sixty-five but more like fifty. I will take that as a compliment thank you. Every six weeks my hairdresser, Meredith, touches up my gray roots. For six months this year I had a neon pink streak done but this month I gave it up and went back to my “natural” brown. But I’m not ready for gray yet. I see many celebrities and actresses going gray and wearing it proud. Not me. I’m not ready for it. But let’s face it when you become eligible for Medicare everyone thinks wow “she’s old”. But age is just a number. Sure, we can feel our age, but we can also accept our age and still be graceful about it. Getting to be a “certain age” gives you the privilege of saying what you feel an not giving a flying fuck who cares. The old adage “you are as young as you feel” is true. Are there days I can’t remember why I walked into the kitchen? Are there days I’m tired and sore? Yes, but for the most part I am still kicking butt. I plan on riding a red jazzy scooter in the old folk’s home and causing my daughters some embarrassment. I plan on blasting Red Hot Chili Peppers in my senior apartment and drinking wine on the porch.

I believe the best years of my life are still to come. Happy Birthday old lady!