When did you finally feel old?

When the moms at the skatepark seemed too young to flirt with.

When I honestly felt that what my homemade juice/blended smoothie thingy needed more of was celery and that without enough celery it was too sweet and lacked body. That was the day there was no more pretending. Only a year before had I suffered through my first back injury, so they can go together.

Otherwise, the beginnings of it for me were when I noticed warming up for physical exercise took longer. 10-15 minute bicycle commutes used to require no warm up at all. Then I’d feel warmed up only by the end of them. That’s when I knew I was turning the corner.

When I realized I could say "I've been doing this for 20 years".

When my cousin's babies that used to play in my grandmothers house had children of their own

When I started sharing aches and pains over lunch with friends.

when the web became an application platform

When I turned 50 this year...

At my BF's cousin's 18th birthday party, a small family do at the uncle and aunt's house. The living room was full of people 60+, so as 30 something young people we naturally headed out into the hallway to hang with the cousins and their friends. All these young people barely registered us and just moved aside to let us past, they didn't even look at us, just carried on talking to each other. We got to the kitchen and looked at each other and just went oh shit, we're old aren't we. Grabbed drinks and headed back to the old folk, at least they would speak to us!

The first time was when even the "old man" veteran professional athletes were younger than me.

When I had to fill a survey and I filled age group 25-35 instead of 18-25

When I address my peers suddenly as "old white men", and then realize they're just as old as me.

Cellulite. :(

When I got blackout drunk last week and I'm still feeling the hangover effects.....I'm 29 for fuck sake! Let me do what I did ten years ago and still come out strong!

I've always enjoyed some classic rock, when I was a kid I used to listen to the oldies station and groove to some Steppenwolf or whatever. One day I was driving to work, radio tuned to the classic rock station, and they played Pearl Jam.

40 essentially. Intensified when my anxiety peaked from tapering off meds, and realized that at 60 im 75% done with my span statistically.

Multiple times a month ever since the day I was taught what birthdays are.

When I looked in the mirror one day and saw all the gray in my hair and beard.

When I started to need to constantly crack my lower back.

People have started calling me ma'am.

I saw the Coachella lineup this past year and didn't know 90% of the lineup. My back started acting up that day. I'm 33.

I was in a GameStop one day and there was a father and son there. The son was wanting to buy some Pokemon cards and asked his father if they were similar to the Pokemon cards they had when he was growing up and that's when it hit me that people who grew up playing Pokemon are old enough to have children.

The first time was when I realized I couldn't read the digital clock on the microwave when I was sitting in the livingroom. I'd been able to do that most of my life, but suddenly it was too far away and blurry.

My eyesight isn't even bad, I don't wear glasses and don't have a problem reading books or seeing things near or far.

But damn, did that make me realize I'm getting old.

My partner keeps calling me 'old man' but it makes me feel more like a slug than old...

As soon as I was born

I'm not sure about "old" specifically, but the first time I really felt my mortality and the ticking clock was when I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, and realized that virtually every night I sleep from then until I die is with something strapped to my face.

That was 14 years ago, and now I have high blood pressure meds I will likely take until I die and arthritis from working as a helicopter mechanic (those 9 years of piano lessons are sure paying off, lol). So I guess the new feeling of old is seeing the ticking clock and hoping it runs out before the general painful breakdown of my body progresses too far. When I was in my early 20s, I imagined I'd be unlikely to live past 60. Now I dread what my life will be like if I'm still alive after 60.