Poll How Old Do You Feel?

[radicalgratitude]

Old because I expended so much energy for so much of my life that I feel like I've lived longer than I have

I totally get that, Bell. I sometimes think I've already met my quota for how much suffering one has to go through in life and I should be older because of it.

 

[EverOnly358]

I love this question!

My favorite answer was Primo-No's... feeling 342! LOL! ;)

But Solara... I love your goal!! And intimacy... I'm not sure I even know what it means. I wonder sometimes if I married my husband because we have a total lack of intimacy... I felt good with him because like I had no idea how to be intimate at all! So, hey, you're one up on me. ;) It's so weird you said something about a screaming child... I go nuts when any of my kids cry. I completely lose it, start panicking. It's always been that way. Which, um... they kinda love, because when they do get upset, I'm all concerned and completely there for them and showering them with love and doing things to cheer them up. When they were babies, though... it was really, really hard for me. Honestly... I don't know how I got through it. I guess... I never relaxed, I was always in crisis mode for years and years, for the next time they would cry. Weird. I think it's perfectly valid not having children if that's what you really want. It's not a requirement or anything.

I totally feel younger than I actually am, all the time. I feel 6 or 13 or 19 or 20 or 23. 23 is about the oldest I ever feel. I wake up, and I'm actually confused... like how did I become a middle-aged housewife? (I'm 40.) Why don't I feel like one? It's totally weird, because my eldest daughter is 19, and sometimes I feel like she's older and more mature than me.

And yeah... I totally have a baby face. Everyone says I look young for my age, too young to have an adult daughter. What's up with that?

D

 

[Hashi]

I have felt 342

Good answer, and I'm glad you haven't aged any more.

I used to feel like I was 80. I have a relative who's 82 and she's always telling me I have no idea what it's like to be old and have difficulty concentrating and getting things done. She has no idea about the traumas I've experienced, or PTSD. She has no idea that what she describes sounds exactly like my life.

I wouldn't say "old soul" though. I'm not sure what you mean by that, but to me it seems to have some sort of connotations of learning and wisdom. For myself feeling 80 I'd simply say, worn out old person.

I've never felt like I was a child, not even when I was one.

 

[rightkindofme]

I'm definitely an old soul. I have done this stuff before. It is part of why I have no patience. :)

 

[p-no]

I've never felt like I was a child, not even when I was one.

Me neither, @Hashi, minus the "never". I am glad and have felt grateful ever since that topic of allowing yourself to be a child (act child-like, do child-like things) came up in therapy (my first at age 19). I can be totally silly and enjoy it. My apartment looks as if a kid lived here. Few months ago a woman interested in renting my now former apartment came to have a look at it. She said: "Where does your child sleep?" There was only one bed... :D

When I feel like it, I will sing on the street. I will buy stuffed animals and my kitchen has a huge Snoopy painting up on the wall, rainbow colored pillows on the couch, a colorful confetti lamp and there's another Peanuts painting in my bedroom. I do go to the fun fair for cotton candy and enjoy it with all my heart. I take kids out in autumn to collect chestnuts and find great delight in it -- more than any of the kids I've ever taken. :D I always felt I have lived my life in the wrong order -- maybe that is why I love the Benjamin Button movie: in a way I can relate. :shy:

Never too late to let your child take over here and there. It's possible to learn it, too.

Hope this is on topic enough, @radicalgratitude :unsure:

 

[Lucycat]

I could only answer for how I feel today. It changes, but right now I am my adult self.

 

[nomedic1]

500

 

[Abstract]

Emotionally I feel about 4 today. Physically I feel 403.

 

[Deleted member 19804]

The biggest part of me is definitely a few years older than other people with the same age. I'm extremely responsible (don't drink, always check if my friends got home ok when they left in the evening) and risk averse. But there's still a small part that's optimistic and playful like a child.

 

[Orglethorp]

I tend to regress to a younger state of mind when I'm triggered, and I have no problem being friends with people my own age and even a little younger, but I have never felt my own age. I've always felt older. People tell me that I look a lot younger than I am, but once they get to know me, or if they meet me without seeing me, they always tell me that I'm so much wiser and more mature than others my age. It's easier for me now that I'm 25 to feel like I have things in common with my peers than it was when I was a child and a teen, and I think it's because my peers are starting to catch up with me. I almost feel like they've changed a lot more than I have.

 

[DharmaGirl]

I go between feeling 4 and 19. I'm 54. I don't feel or look 54.

 

[Changing4Best]

I'm 59 and wish I were 60 so I would be old enough to go to the Senior Center here in town, but really, what is the difference between 59 and 60!ALMOST NOTHING.