Glad I'm not the only one that feels it. Something changed hard at 50. Up to then, I could relate to young people until I was almost 50. But now there is a huge generation gap.
And it seems like yesterday I learned a childhood friend was getting her master's in psychology. She just retired after 25 years working for the prison system. I didn't even know. I still think of her as a graduate student. OMG.
I'm a great-aunt now.
In my 40s, people didn't notice me because I reminded them of their parents, or who has use for a matron anyway. But if you think that's bad, 50 is even worse because not only do they have no use for me, but I'm also in their way. They actually aim to physically push past me, and sometimes there are collisions when walking, even though I look in the direction I'm going so everyone knows which way I'm headed. But they have no time for analyzing body language. They just bowl you over. I hope I never did that when I was young.
I need to move to a retirement community ASAP. Aging would be so much easier to handle without kids slamming into me. Maybe I would be one of the young ones. I hear Scottsdale is nice...
I turn 73 in December, work 3 days a week in the state headquarters for two veterans organizations that help our vets and service connected disabled vets get the benefits they are entitled to and earned by their service, webmaster two sites, am editor and creator of 3 state newsletters/newspapers, travel for the VSOs I work for, and then take care of home and family, plus enjoy our college and pro football teams and make a couple or more fun week long trips to Orlando, Texas, and such.
My list of health problems rival Falkie and I may have to do some things slower, but I’ve never had to worry about younger ones or middle aged folks running me over. And at my age, we’ve earned the right to say what we want and to hell with those who think otherwise.
Why am I relating all of this? Because it all comes down to our attitude about what we want our lives to be and not accepting less. 50’s are a great age to be...embrace the time, utilize it to the fullest. It is all in your hands. To me, 50 year olds are still kids (or anyone under 65)...so, kiddies, you still got a lot of life left to live. Go for it.