I answered one of @Corie Henson 's posts this morning and said something about not considering myself a senior and won't for quite a while most likely. So I got to wondering if it's just me... I'm sure that I won't consider myself a senior when I reach 60 or 65 (hope I'm right about that!) but when will I? Maybe 75? I don't know. When did ya'll consider yourself a senior, and if you haven't yet, when do you think it will be? (Sorry if this post has already be done... some form of deja vu is nagging at the back of my mind that I remember a discussion about it previously.)
I consider myself a senior right now at 65 because I got medicare. There's different ways to think about being a senior. Mentally, physically, legally, discount wise, etc. If not for some back issues, physically I feel like I did in my 40's. I was at my best in my 40's I think. I've gotten in a rut this past year though and I have to get out of that but I'm working on it.
Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I live in a town where there are a lot of retired people twenty years older than me or more, yet some of them can run circles around me. There are times when I forget and think about going back to school for one thing or another, then I remember that there isn't a lot of time left for another career.
Lots of retired people around me, too... maybe being the "youngster" on my street except for one guy has been good for me. About school... I'm a lifelong learner, and if you can swing it time-wise, I really don't think you'd be disappointed. I'm doing a Yale class in nutrition at the moment. I was certified in the subject a number of years ago, but I'm loving every minute of it even if I already knew a lot of it. Never hurts to brush up. If you'd at some point decide to go for it, what types of subjects interest you? @Ken Anderson
Learning, and training for a career are different things, and I don't need to pay a college in order to learn something.
Pay? I don't think anyone needs to pay to do college classes with everything that's available free online from even the ivy-leagues, @Ken Anderson .
That's what I meant, or from books or video. My reference was to going back to school for one thing or another, that being a new career, which would require enrollment.
Even though many people do it, you have to be realistic about a new career at 65. College is expensive and you may not even get a job....things you have to think about.
I am 57 and do not consider myself a senior, yet. Maybe at 65 I will consider myself one. I am still busy getting used to being 57.
Over here, 60 is the age of senior that comes with the benefit of discount in food outlets, medicines, groceries. My husband is 61 but he says he feels like 50 and he wants to look like 50 so he never forgets to have his hair dyed black to hide the white hair. And to complement that young feeling, he makes at least 20 push ups in the morning. He said that he used to make 50 but he is afraid to hurt himself so he is exercising to a level that his body is comfortable with. With me, I'm 53 but I admit that I also want to look younger at least to my eyes so I could feel younger. And I don't exercise regularly that would have tapered this bulging tummy. And my usual reason is that I have no time to exercise. But in fairness to me, I am a positive thinker and I try to smile all the time. That smile gives me a feeling that I'm still young, huh.
Well at now age 81 and about to be 82 on the 12th there is no doubt indeed tat I am a senior but I don't really think I have thought about it before despite paying senior prices for a film at the theater. I was so physically active with scuba diving and other sporting activities through my 50's 60's & 70's I always was thinking of SENIORS as being other people.
I liked your answer, @Ren Tanner . It's exactly how I feel... maybe 20 years ago, I would have considered a senior to be a lot younger than I think of it now, but... no, I'll reconsider when I hit 60. And then 65. And then... who knows? I'm thinking I might start accepting the title of senior around 75. Maybe I should learn scuba diving!
I'm 72 and do not consider my self old yet. I'm not sure I ever will. I still do quite a few of the things I did when I was younger, I don't ask the guy at the nursery to load my mulch and rock. I mow and weed-whack my own yard. By the calendar I may be up in years but I have not even considered dialing back on the way I have always lived. I guess someday I may have no choice but til then I'm not.
Gradually coming "to grips" with the idea. I've felt "young" all my adult life, expecting something extremely serious to strike me down, and that would be it. Now that such an event has spared me (so far!), I see the value of living each day as fully as possible. My wife's Mom, at 90, still drives herself 10 miles to town for Senior events, Red Hatters, lunch with friends. Looking ahead to 90, that would be 16 more years for me! Can't happen. Frank