Other people make you feel old, sometimes just by existing. It seems like taking notice of all the things that can make someone feel old is the first step to actually noticing that you’re getting older. Yeah, that sounds pretty stupid as I read it but I haven’t really taken notice of things like that as they might apply to me only until the past year or so … after turning 40.

I suppose 20 years is a good amount of time to look back on and most of what I’m referring to are instances where people refer to songs that were popular “TWENTY DAMN YEARS AGO” like that’s basically some horrible span of time and that it all would have been forgotten about without some sort of shocking reminder. Really, songs that were popular during my senior year of high school still get air play so I’m not sure how much shock value one gets from all that.

Noticing that the other people around me are pretty much half my age isn’t all that bad, until the culture shock. Yesterday someone whim I work with didn’t know who Demi Moore was. Honestly, that’s not huge since she’s been out of the spotlight for awhile but not even knowing her existence was a little bit shocking to me. I haven’t even really processed it yet but it’s not the first time this has happened with some of the younger folks around me and when I take note of how one of them was born the year I started college leads me to believe that I might be aging just a bit, as time just keeps moving and there are gentle reminders all around but until you’ve got more time behind you than possibly ahead it doesn’t nag at you so much, or you don’t even notice it at all.

Honestly, I can’t say that I feel any older. I’ve been taking much better care of myself in the past couple years and my body isn’t all pissed off an achy like I might have imagined (if I thought of that sort of thing) when I was 20ish. Not exactly remembering if there were ANY aches and pains back then makes it easier to think not much has changed, so I’ll go with that.