\u201cNo one prepared us for this!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHair loss wasn\u2019t on my bingo card\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t sleep a full night anymore because I pee so much.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhy didn\u2019t anyone tell us about perimenopause?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Sigh. Just stop, will you?<\/p>\n I\u2019m speaking to you and myself as well. I\u2019ve been there, I’ve done it, and now I\u2019m sick of hearing it. I’ve read all the things, joined in on all the whining, and spoken like an expert jerk about all things \u201cgetting old\u201d to whoever will listen. But I\u2019ve had an epiphany: all this moaning is making us even older. Here are some insights I\u2019ve picked up along my crusty old journey.<\/p>\n \u201cYou won\u2019t be young forever!\u201d my mom said. \u201cNana told me, and now I\u2019m telling you: enjoy it while you can,\u201d she continued as I was walking towards my car. \u201cYeah, yeah, I know. I\u2019ll be back later, don\u2019t wait up!\u201d I said as I jumped in my Cutlass Supreme, heading out for a mindless night of hormone-infused drinking.<\/p>\n Old people tell young people all the things, and the young people pretty much never ever listen. If they did, I would\u2019ve stopped going to the tanning salon when an \u201cold\u201d customer in the floppy hat told me all the perils of her skin cancer. But I ignored her, and now I\u2019m scrounging the aisles for the best \u201canti-crepe\u201d lotion I can find. They\u2019ll learn like we did, by making mistakes, so save your breath: Youth is wasted on the young.<\/p>\n RELATED: If You Want To Age Backwards, Research Shows This One Habit Is Just As Powerful As Having Good Genes<\/strong><\/p>\n Years ago I heard a saying, \u201cThe past is a great place to visit; just don\u2019t live there,\u201d and I couldn\u2019t agree more. It\u2019s great to reminisce, but it\u2019s easy to get stuck wishing for days of old that will never come back. I watched my sister do it when her life got tough, and if you\u2019ve followed me long enough, you know how that ended. Get a new hobby, make new friends, visit new places, take a new route, and shake things up so you don\u2019t get stuck in the cobwebs of your boom box.<\/p>\n RELATED: 18 Good Reasons Experts Say Getting Older Is Better Than Most People Expect<\/strong><\/p>\n Getting old is not easy, nor fun. I know, I know, some say it\u2019s the \u201cbest season\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m full of more wisdom\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m aging gracefully,\u201d and I call liar, liar. Sure, there are things you\u2019re glad you know now, but I can\u2019t say I know anyone who truly enjoys going gray, losing words, waking up with random, unknown kinks in their body, or feeling like anyone under 45 looks through you like you\u2019re invisible. Oh yeah, and your friends or family start croaking. True story.<\/p>\n Aging isn\u2019t all doom and gloom, but it\u2019s definitely thrown a lot of things at me I didn\u2019t see coming. Now it feels like the next season is just a calendar of dodging bullets. Why would I want to dwell on that?<\/p>\n No cream, injection, procedure, or diet will make you go back in time. In fact, many who are desperate to hang on to the look of their youth end up looking more like a clown-faced version of their former self.<\/p>\n After reading too many articles about the \u201chorrors\u201d of getting old, I\u2019ve decided to use my time and energy on more positive things. Like making a plan to do an overnight hike on a local volcano while I still can, or finishing the memoir I started but got sidetracked on, and figuring out how to make this next handful of years some of the most important of my life instead of looking at them as if I\u2019m tumbling off a cube in Q-Bert.<\/p>\n Not long ago I sat at lunch with my father and two of his 80-something-year-old friends, and all they talked about was medical procedures and whose blood work came back badly. I told my dad I\u2019d rather do literally anything else than have to sit through another meal like that. He just laughed at me and said, \u201cThat\u2019s all they talk about; it\u2019s terrible,\u201d and he\u2019s 86.<\/p>\n So what now? I\u2019m far from perfect, and I\u2019m not in my senior years yet, but I\u2019ve quickly seen how detrimental it can be to hyperfocus on aging. I have friends who use the phrase \u201c… at our age\u201d a little too much, in my view, and frankly, I don\u2019t like being categorized as \u201ctheir age\u201d at this point. People are living much longer, and if the longevity in my family is any indication, I have at least 30+ years left to go, which is a whole young lifetime. Why do I want to spend the next 30 years whining about how bad it could potentially be instead of trying to live my best life one day at a time? I don\u2019t.<\/p>\nHere are some reasons we need to stop treating aging like it\u2019s the worst thing ever:<\/h2>\n
1. Most people don\u2019t care<\/h3>\n
![\"young](\"https:\/\/www.yourtango.com\/sites\/default\/files\/image_blog\/2026-08\/young-woman-turned-away-older-woman.png\" "\\"Reasons")
<\/span> fizkes \/ Shutterstock<\/span><\/p>\n2. Living in ‘the good old days’ is a mind melt<\/h3>\n
3. Ruminating on getting old is frankly depressing<\/h3>\n
4. You can\u2019t change it<\/h3>\n
![\"older](\"https:\/\/www.yourtango.com\/sites\/default\/files\/image_blog\/2026-08\/older-woman-cant-change-aging.png\" "\\"Reasons")
<\/span> fizkes \/ Shutterstock<\/span><\/p>\n