The aim of every child the dismay of many adults. While physicists debate the existence of time as a concept we still get older none the less.
There is no age immune to the pain of aging. I remember really loving my first pushbike and being incredibly upset at the idea of having to let it go on the grounds that I was too big for it. As far as I was concerned there was nothing faster in the world, I may have been around 6 or 7 at the time and despite wanting to be older I had my first memorable taste of painful aging.
Truth is I don't actually mind getting older, things are more difficult I simply work harder at them and I am fit so the middle aged spread seems to be happening in areas that are no big deal. None the less 40 is looming incredibly near and there are some things that I would rather not happen but I cannot escape.
The hair issue. Going grey, couldn't care less, going bald, hmm! I used to have long hair, useful for headbanging and appealing to my wife. The day came when I looked and thought this is going to start looking really stupid and it was cut short, something I wasn't happy about. There are different ways you can go bald, receding from the front, bald spot expansion or various combinations of the two. Mine is a combination, two sides receding back and a growing spot halfway back my head, working to leave a small island of hair at the centre front. There are no graceful ways to go bald but this one is very annoying and starting to look really ridiculous. I think I would rather it just disappear and get on with it.
The added joy is I know there are a number of scars under that hair which will become exposed and I don't know that I fancy that much. One colleague said I could get a toupee as what I assumed was a joke. As I pointed out, with my attention to detail regarding personal grooming, I would likely end up wearing it backwards.
In conclusion the balding is not great.
Expectations. As you get to certain ages there are expectations on you. I am a staid old man in that I am happy with my family and various things in my life, but most this way are apparently supposed to look podgy and wear cardigans. Being fit somehow makes people think it's midlife crisis time. I did enough really stupid, irresponsible things when younger not to need any more in my life. This means I confuse many by being happy despite approaching a milestone others seem to dread.
One thing I love about getting older. Less people putting my physical ability down to being young. I train hard and enjoy it, that is why I have done well. It is also funny to watch others sometimes not much more than half my age declaring they wouldn't be able to do any of the various things I take for granted doing every week.
I am interested in any accounts of what you may think about getting older, good bad indifferent, the more humorous the better. Age no issue.
You're going bald in the same way my dad did. He used to have hair halfway down the back when he was 20ish. When he was 40 his hair was receeding. Once he got to 50, he just started getting an all-over buzz cut...seems to be the best one can do when hair gets like that. I got my hair halfway down my back by the time I was 22. Ended up getting most of it cut off late in 2011, and the hairdresser who did it claimed to have a heart attack at the thought of it. I never saw her in that salon again, so maybe she wasn't kidding.
ReplyDeleteI've already had a 1/5 life crisis and a 1/4 life crisis, I look forward to my inevitable 1/3 life crisis and eventual 1/2 life crisis.
One thing (although this certainly isn't the only thing) that motivates me to train right now in my life is the prospect of having osteoporosis when I'm 80. I plan on not doing that, so lifting heavy things now seems like a good idea.
I've figured out that, on paper, once I finish university if I get fulltime work as a teacher, marry a fulltime teacher (or someone on a similar pay scale), and hold off on reproducing for a while, my imaginary wife and I can pay off a family home in about 5 years flat. Then I won't have to worry about finances quite as much as we enter parenthood, which is good, because I'll be due for my 1/3 life crisis by this time. Alas, fitting real life neatly together like that seldom goes according to plan.
I remember years ago, possibly 10 of them, wheeling my motorbike out of the house we lived in and some passing stranger asking if that was my midlife crisis, getting a big bike. I thought for a moment and replied, I had always ridden bikes, used to work casually and travel when practical, by then I was buying a house, working full time and just got a car licence so my midlife crisis was me settling down.
ReplyDeleteI also remember upsetting a colleague of mine a few years ago by referring to myself as middle aged, when he knew we were the same age. My point was simple average ages is 3 score and 10 aka 70 and we were 35 how much more in the middle can you get.
Plans are great. Houses there must be hellishly cheap if 5 years will buy you a decent one. In all honesty I would say some of the best things in my life have been what we couldn't have planned.
It's not so much that houses are cheap (although I don't know how the market compares here vs the UK, so they might be by comparison) as it is that I'm an expert on not spending money on other stuff...and so long as there's no children in the picture, I'd be keen to rent out the spare rooms.
DeleteTeachers here get paid about $50,000-$60,000, and I'm adept at living on $10,000/year, being a uni student with conveniently simple tastes. If I make that a duel-income, that's $100,000-120,000 in theory. If I rent out 2 rooms for $200/week each, that yields about $20,000/year, bringing total income up to $120,000-140,000. Let's assume the lower end of the scale. Income tax here on $120,000 is $32,347. That drags the total down to about $85,000 (rounding down). If wifey and I then live on $20,000 between us, that leaves us with $65,000 to put into the house each year. On a $300,000 investment (average houses are something like $420,000; I don't expect to have the prettiest house as my first home unless I make it pretty after buying it) and 6% interest, that $65,000/year could pay off the house in about 5 years and 5 months, according to my loan calculator.
Things that I can reasonably expect to make this beautiful plan fall apart at the seams: Times of unemployment; Being all "Oh, I have money, now I can afford to be aware of stuff that costs money and then spend my money on that;" Imaginary wife doesn't want to spend every spare cent on a house; Imaginary wife is in fact imaginary; Imaginary tennents/boarders not paying that may/not filling the rooms consistently/being imaginary.
Every plan I've had so far that involved meaningful finances has done the exact opposite of coming to fruition. Turns out that living in poverty is not highly conducive to being stinking rich. Who knew?
I used to live on far less and had fun. Now living costs far more, I still have fun, but there are complications.
DeleteI moved house, bedsit strictly speaking, around 15 years ago on a single motorbike load, only thing I had to go back for was pushbike. When we moved to our current home it took 1.5 loads of a luton van,. I could blame my wife and son as they have a lot of stuff, but so do I now.
Money is a stress, if you earn more you usually spend more, there are few exceptions. If you earn it, enjoy it and don't go bankrupt, no problem. My brother probably spends more on beer etc. a year than my gym set up cost me, neither of us would trade, we both work and enjoy what we have.
None know what life will bring, especially money wise. My current income was the stuff of my dreams years ago, my hours the stuff of nightmares still, split the income between 3 it's suddenly far more modest, but the other two are more than worth it.