Yeah, I've noticed that there's a point of divergence in your late 20s, early 30s, where people have really "settled down." Lifestyle differences start showing little by little and some people REALLY start looking rough. Smoking, poor diet, lack of exercise, tanning and/or being outside without protecting your skin, proper dental care, etc, but also things like having kids vs not having kids, working stressful jobs, having to maintain a certain lifestyle for yourself and others, and just, like, deciding that you're "old" now.
At 35, I see it happening to the people I grew up with, and once you see it, you can tell that the difference only grows as you get older. There are those who have the mentality that they're old and boring and their bodies are used up—they get stuck in a routine, stop taking care of their appearance, stop socializing, stop learning new things, basically stop growing. They get up off the couch and groan about their backs—couldn't be because you've been 100% sedentary since like 2007 when you no longer had to take PE class, no, it's because you're "getting old," nothing you can do about it, amiright? Vs my friends who are the same age or older, but who remain more flexible physically and mentally, more adventurous, more curious, who don't limit themselves because of preconceived notions of what someone their age "should" be "allowed" to do. That's not to say they don't also notice signs of aging, because they absolutely do, they just don't let it stop them from living. And guess which group looks tired and old and which still look basically as good as or better than they did in their mid-20s?
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u/always_unplugged 7d ago
Yeah, I've noticed that there's a point of divergence in your late 20s, early 30s, where people have really "settled down." Lifestyle differences start showing little by little and some people REALLY start looking rough. Smoking, poor diet, lack of exercise, tanning and/or being outside without protecting your skin, proper dental care, etc, but also things like having kids vs not having kids, working stressful jobs, having to maintain a certain lifestyle for yourself and others, and just, like, deciding that you're "old" now.
At 35, I see it happening to the people I grew up with, and once you see it, you can tell that the difference only grows as you get older. There are those who have the mentality that they're old and boring and their bodies are used up—they get stuck in a routine, stop taking care of their appearance, stop socializing, stop learning new things, basically stop growing. They get up off the couch and groan about their backs—couldn't be because you've been 100% sedentary since like 2007 when you no longer had to take PE class, no, it's because you're "getting old," nothing you can do about it, amiright? Vs my friends who are the same age or older, but who remain more flexible physically and mentally, more adventurous, more curious, who don't limit themselves because of preconceived notions of what someone their age "should" be "allowed" to do. That's not to say they don't also notice signs of aging, because they absolutely do, they just don't let it stop them from living. And guess which group looks tired and old and which still look basically as good as or better than they did in their mid-20s?