One of my followers commented that she liked the idea of ’58 being middle-aged!’. I guess she felt that middle-age is somewhat younger than 58??
It got me thinking.
What is middle-age? Or should I say – When is middle-age? Are you middle-aged right now? If not, when do you think you will be? Or, from where you’re standing, is middle-age something that happens to younger people??
Wikipedia has something to say about it – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_age – so middle-age is officially between 40 / 45 and 60 / 65 – ish.
Bollocks to that.
Despite the name of my blog I don’t see myself as middle-aged at all. (But calling the blog ‘Not-really-middle-aged-yet free and single dot com’ would have been a bit long-winded!)
I suspect it’s what other people see when they look at me though – I have grey hair, I live alone with my cat, and I’m a volunteer with the National Trust, I’m a grandma, and I enjoy knitting. That sounds pretty middle-aged, to be fair.
However – I also go to the gym every other day, write a blog, own half a limited company and I’m about to start a new job at the National Science and Media Museum (yes, I got the job that I mentioned at the end of this post. I start on 8th July!!!) That doesn’t sound so middle-aged after all!!!
I don’t feel middle-aged. Well, I don’t feel like I imagine middle-aged people feel. I can still remember thinking that 25 was old… 40 does still sound old to me – it shocks me to realise it’s 18 years since I was that old!
Age is just a number – but I don’t think middle-age has anything to do with age. It has everything to do with state of mind. Some people are middle-aged by the time they’re 30 – others never quite get there.
Not being middle-aged is about attitude, energy and enthusiasm. It’s about being interested and interesting. It’s about being engaged, involved, having an opinion, giving a shit. It’s about taking the risk, getting out there, doing something different just for the hell of it, being brave. It’s about not putting up with the mundane, the boring, the ordinary. We only come this way once – it’s about making the most of every minute.
And as someone older and wiser than me once said – We should never complain about getting old, there’s many denied the privilege.
This blog – this very blog!! – has just reached #12 in Feedspot’s Top 20 blogs for women over 50!!! https://blog.feedspot.com/women_over_50_blogs/. Chuffed to bits, me.
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I always reply to comments from nice people.
