“Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative” Maurice Chevalier

It’s been said “youth is wasted on the young”, but I couldn’t find who really said it. Some sources say George Bernard Shaw and others attribute it to Oscar Wilde and neither of their quotes are the same. Anyway, the meaning of this is, when you are young you don’t really appreciate it. You are young in body and mind and think you will live forever. Not until you reach a certain age do you fully appreciate what you have. And considering “the alternative” as stated so eloquently by Maurice above, here are my top ten reasons growing older rocks.

1. Best thing ever…Senior Discounts…these are awesome….and you don’t even know most of them even exist. Don’t feel bad about asking for them, we’ve earned them…and more.

2. Younger people excuse you(most of the time anyway) when you say or do something stupid. Because of course, we’re old and don’t know any better… Not that I ever say or do something stupid.

3. People think we know everything about everything!  I guess because we are old and have lived though so much, we must have good advice. The flip side to this is, when some people don’t take the advice we give them… I guess we shouldn’t waste our breath, who knows how many of them we have left.

4. We don’t have to worry or stress about the big choices in life anymore. Like what career choices to make or if we should or shouldn’t have kids.  Most of the big choices have been made by us or for us. We are past that point now and can do what we want. We can work if we choose to work and do what we love to do instead of working to make a paycheck. And at least in my case there are no more kids going to be happening any time soon. Maybe a dog or cat…but that’s it.

5. It is a time in our lives when we truly have learned that looks can only get you so far. It’s not on the outside, it’s what’s inside that matters. So this means we can dress for us and for comfort. I do like to be fashionable, just not every day. If I want to lunge around in my sweats all day, I will.  And no more 4 inch heels for me. I killed my poor feet for far too long.

6. Our relationships with friends and family are real. I think we have come to the point where we have lost so many people and know that we only have so many more years left so the relationships we have in our lives now are the ones we want to be there. So we make time for them and cherish each moment we spend with them. When we were younger, our friends were all going through the having kids thing, the moving for careers thing and various other reasons why we didn’t have time or were in different places in our lives. Now we are for the most part at the same place and we have the time. When we are with family members now, there is an awareness that the time we are spending together is special.

7. The most fun thing ever is that we have time to be with our grandkids, to enjoy them, take them places and then send them home to their parents. Having grandkids is a lot like having kids only so much better because we don’t have the responsibilities we had with our kids. It is not on us to make them come out right. So we can just enjoy them.

8. We can do things we want to now, not because we have to. I have started writing at the age of 65. It is something I always wanted to do. Something I dreamed of doing, but just never seemed to have the time. I wrote as a teenager and then again in my late 20’s but then somehow just never started back up again. But I never lost the desire or the dream. It is never too late and we are never too old!

9. Naps! We can take naps and we can sleep in or go to bed early. There is no alarm waking us up for work. Getting up when I want to get up is the best feeling in the world. Getting up at all is even better.

10. I don’t have to be anywhere on anyone’s schedule but mine. If I want to spend the whole day reading, watching tv or on Facebook, I can do that. I sometimes feel guilty and then I stop and think about it, I deserve this, I earned the right to do what I want when I want. So I do!

These are my top ten. I’m sure I can think of more. I will end with this quote from Bernard Baruch, “To me, old age is always fifteen years older than I am”. I feel the same way.

Are you enjoying getting older? What are some of the reasons you enjoy it?