Act your age

I had a discussion with some friends recently about how old each of us thought we were. Not our calendar age, but the age we held in our mind. All of us clocked in at least ten years younger than our trips around the sun would indicate.

I began to wonder if our age was dictated by significant events in our lives instead of the calendar. I have kids that are still at home so this puts me in the kid-rearing age. My clock stopped when they were born. They keep me young by telling me what’s popular in games, memes, and cultural touchstones in general. I suppose when they leave the house, I’ll have to add at least ten years to my clock.

But, I have a friend in her mid-sixties who is the youngest person I know. A couple of years back she returned to being a ski bum and hung out with all the 20-somethings in the warming hut.  Her kids are grown but she still listens to alternative music and reads cyberpunk novels. Her youth isn’t just mental; she physically looks younger than any of her peers.

This leads to my thought of the day. What if people acted the age that they wanted to be rather than the age they were. Sometimes we could play more games, other times we could dance, and sing in the car while we did our errands. I think that this would make us stay younger longer, in a healthy way. This may become one of five year goals.