What does being 60 feel like? Short answer, not bad at all. Longer answer is there’s more to it. This is in terms of how I feel physically, mentally and also my outlook on life changes.
I look at myself in the mirror. I see someone much older than I’m used to seeing, far more wrinkled, my eyes look tired and my hair is receding and thinning out quite quickly. I seem to have aged a lot in the last year.
The stark reality of being 60 is that I am having to accept my physical peak is way in the past. I always tend to look on the bright side of things, always believing the best is yet to come. Nevertheless I find it hard to accept living in a body which is now 60 years old. I painfully realise this and yet I still cling to thoughts of running another marathon and revelling in the months of training. All those exclamations about the Runner’s High and the smelly running clothes which Rachel lovingly picks up from the floor and throws them into the washing machine.
There are, however, a few tell tale signs I’m getting on a bit.
Before I dissect my creaky frame the whole idea of being 60 is serious stuff. It is starting to sound “old”. My daughters, in their early twenties, think I’m seriously old as they cannot comprehend my age. They already think of me as being “old” because I have been retired for 3½ years now, again something which they simply can’t get their heads around.
At least my “senior” years are acknowledged by the National Health Service as it seems I’m automatically exempt from paying prescription charges and eyesight tests. That will save me some money; this is always most welcome! Slightly less palatable is receiving a letter from the NHS about a colon cancer home screening kit which is coming my way.
They say we age in steps, rather than a continuous, steady ageing process. If this is true, I have had one of those massive steps in 2021. My skin is suddenly wrinkly these days, little injuries take longer to heal and I feel the cold much more. I injured my foot last year and the healing process seems to be so slow.
More subtle signs are the increasing difficulty with glare from car headlights, according to my optician this is an early sign of cataracts. I console myself knowing my eyes otherwise haven’t changed over the last few years and yet I still keep losing my glasses, slightly better is simply squashing them when I sit down. My hygienist regularly gives me a pep talk about my need to keep my teeth flossed and ultra clean. I try to balance the professional nag by reminding myself that I’ve not needed any dental treatment for several years and I STILL have all my teeth.
Arguably it is my outlook on life which is changing most of all. After I retired I went through a phase of being outspoken, and still do to a certain extent. This, by the way, was a reaction to years of having to tow the party line for the corporate good and having some kind of invisible censorship over me.
What seems most important is to not keep putting things off. Things I’d like to do but always seem to procrastinate about. The other day I went for a walk on my own and I had a talk with myself about this – most importantly I shouldn’t keep doing this. “Get a grip Doug!” and besides “why not, what’s the worst that can happen?” Followed by “all the rewarding things you’ve done in life is where you’ve stuck your neck out, perhaps stepped outside your comfort zone”.
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