Continuing my looking-for-good-things on Mondays…
It’s very easy to get down about getting older, we are told to feel as if life will end when we get old and decrepit, but this week I have been compiling a list to put me in a good mood. My plan for when I’m too old to work and gad about:
Computer games – I’ve played them on occasion, they’re quite fun, but they just seem to eat time and when there are so many things I want to do while I can, I tend to avoid playing. However, once I’m old, and computer games are even more advanced than now, then I’m throwing myself into them with abandon. Fighting zombies in a bombed-out city with a machine gun? Brilliant. Going virtual diving in the sea looking for buried treasure? It’s going to be incredible.
It won’t matter that the world is going to Hell in a hand-basket – well, it probably isn’t doing that any more than it was when I was young, but I’ve spent a life time stressing over global warming and nuclear war and when I’m old that can stop. I’m not saying those things won’t matter to me anymore, but my time of being able to do something to fix them will have passed; it won’t be my world anymore so I’ll stop fretting.
Vanity – I’d say on the whole I don’t worry about how I look. The last time I got a haircut was in 2000 and I haven’t worn make up in years. However, there’s still a small part of me that panics that I’ve got something stuck on my tooth, or that my clothes look scruffy. When I’m old, I’ll look any which way I want and it will be called eccentric, people will excuse my odd appearance with fond, patronising smiles. It will be wonderful. As the poem says, I will wear purple.
Alcohol, drugs and smoking – I used to be a bit over the top with drug-taking and self destructive behaviour when I was younger, in many ways it was great. Then I grew up and became super careful, concerned I might cause myself long-term harm. When I get old enough for long-term not to matter anymore, I will make the most of this. It will be ace, I’ll be a tripping, smoking junkie granny. There may even be some exciting new drugs by then.
These are just a few of the things that no one seems to mention, and there are still all the traditional reasons to be happy – family, going on holiday (if you’re able) and even studying (my mum got her degree when she was seventy). So how about you? What’s going to make your twilight years a joy?
inkbiotic 
Intriguing list! I hope I’ll still have friends and family, that I’ll still be able to play fantasy RPG video games–there will always be a new Dragon Age, right?–and that I’ll still be writing. 😊
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sounds like a good plan! 😀
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Depends when one’s twilight age is — 60? 68 as I am now? 80? 99?! Dammit, my brain still thinks I’m young!!
It’s interesting: when one is young one wants to appear mature and cool. I remember my teenage contemporaries gasping for their next drag on a cancer stick, coughing their guts up, groaning as they got up from a supine position, old before their time. Now we — I’m using ‘we’ in a general sense of course! — spend our time eating healthily, joining a gym, using anti-wrinkle cream, dyeing our hair, all in an attempt to regain a youth we were busy throwing away when we had it.
Why is that? And what was the transition point when we began to live our age? Perhaps we were too busy earning a living, raising a family and paying the mortgage to notice.
Reasons to be cheerful today? I’m still alive and kicking, is what!
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As you say age is just a number. For me, i think of old as when i can no longer do the exploring things i want to do, when i’m restricted, but maybe that will be when i’m a hundred! And i like your reason to be cheerful 😀
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Wonderful attitude – the best is yet to come. and all the freedom from what other people think.- Let’s toss red hats in the air, wear too much purple lipstick, ignore politics and enjoy all those things we didn’t dare to do before! No more housework! Eat when we feel like it. Drink when we want. Hurrah for old age.
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Yeah! YEAH! Glad to hear I won’t be alone in my living disgracefully 😀 (and I really like your username)
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I’m wanting to keep jogging as long as possible, keep writing, enjoying not giving a toss about what people think of me and I’m intrigued about computer games too – ther visual effects are amazing, so I my join you in that. I wont be doing boredom that’s for sure!
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I’m hoping that if we all end up in old people’s homes, someone will twig that equipping them with great computer games will keep us out of mischief. I’m impressed with the jogging – I’m hopeless at that already – but writing yes, I’ll definitely keep that up 🙂
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Some days I feel I’ve already entered the twilight years, especially with my kids being over 18 now, but then there are other days, most days, actually, when I feel like it was only this past spring that I graduated high school. But, since I do what I do on either type of day, I suppose I’ll just keep going like I’ve been until I just stop breathing!
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it sounds like you’ve got it sorted. I think twilight (as you define it) is an especially free time, when responsibilities are a bit less, but you can still do the things you want. It’s all good on an optimistic Monday! 😀
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I like this post. I remember when I quit smoking at age 30, thinking, “man, when I get about 60 I’m gonna smoke as much as I want.” YOLO.
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Heh, I can relate, it made it easier to quit smoking thinking ‘one day I’ll come back, my old friend’. I’m glad you liked it!
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This is a nice feelgood post! Love it. The last one made me smile. I’m gonna do that too 😀
Although i’m not feeling super old , i do worry that i haven’t done the things i wanted to do ( or just failed at them), and that time is running out. I fear having nothing to leave my kid, and things like that. It’s cool that your mum got a degree in her 70’s. I get random urges to study psychology…but the $25 000 debt i’d be left with is scarier now than it would’ve been in my 20’s, as i have less time to pay it off! Then i’ll be competing for jobs against people my age who have 20 years experience. Sigh. Who knows.
Anyway, on a more positive note, i do love the idea of growing old disgracefully. I’ve always been a weirdo, but somehow- as you pointed out- people are very forgiving and kind about eccentricity when you’re old, so that’s definitely something to look forward to! I’ll be milking it for all it’s worth.
Ooh! I remembered something. this site: http://www.advanced.style/ . If you haven’t seen it already, it’s full of photos of eccentric older people shunning stereotypes and looking spectacular doing it. It’s aimed at people who are into fashion, i guess, but it’s still really inspiring. They’re all having so much fun; really living it up and not giving a shit. Beautiful.
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Hello Siddie! That site is great, that’s definitely the kind of fun I want to have with what I wear when I reach that age – there’s such a defiance to it – I swear that’s why my nan’s generation all got blue rinses, it was a kind of punk, a rebellion.
I sympathise with the wanting-to-study idea, I’d love to do a science degree, botany or biology, but I’d never be able to afford it. There seem to be many online courses these days though, and some are free, so maybe that’s an easier way in.
Have a delightful day!
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Yeah, me too. They’re inspiring, aren’t they? I always go to that site when i need a bit of a cheer-up! And yes, i always wondered about the blue/purple rinses being considered a ‘regular-old-lady’ thing to do, because it IS quite punk!
re: studying, y’know, for some reason, i’d always assumed that you HAD studied biology or something. You seem scientifically knowledgable. But i guess that’s just a reflection of your interests. It is rather frustrating that the courses are so expensive….i’m very open to studying free courses online! I’m glad there’s so much info out there. I guess he only drawback is that then you don’t get the qualification that would enable you to work in your chosen field. Oh well. Gotta make the most of the cards we’re dealt, i suppose….in the meantime, i shall perform some sort of magic spell to make us all win the lottery!
You have a delightful day, too!
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I shall see if I can find a magic spells diploma and I’ll give you a hand with the lottery winning. 😀
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Awesome. Sounds like a plan 🙂
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