It’s All Maya!

Danielle Crittenden over at The Huffington Post wrote “How To Lie About Your Age“.  She brings up an important question that I have thought about for years.  Why do women lie about their age and take off five or ten years thinking that’ll fool people, when in reality all it does is make people think, “Boy she’s really aging badly!”  On the other hand, I’ve never thought about adding five or ten years to my real age like Ms. Crittenden suggests so people will say, “Wow you sure look good for your age!”  I must admit, however, this isn’t a bad idea, but I’ve always told the truth about how old I am without any qualms.

I hate to burst Ms. Crittenden’s bubble, but she is reaching a critical period in her life where she has just a few years left to think this aging process isn’t so bad.  I wrote a post on my old blog, (Katawoo - The View From My Window) entitled, “Who Is This Stranger?”  What follows may be eye-opening for Ms. Crittenden and other women hitting the mid-forties.

Who Is This Stranger?
                                                                                                                    
I had a horrible thing happen to me the other day while I was out shopping. I saw this middle-aged lady looking at me and I wondered why, until I realized that it was me looking at myself in the mirror! No joke, it came as quite a shock and I’ve been asking myself, have other Baby Boomers had this happen to them?
                                                                                                                                
Why is it that we still feel young in our minds and then get startled whenever we pass a mirror and wonder who is that old person staring back at us? Will this sensation ever go away? Do we eventually get use to seeing ourselves old, or is this just a phenomenon that happens when we start to age? I hope so! No one told me that I would wake up every morning and ask myself, “Who is that stranger there?”               
                                                                                                                                 
I guess I shouldn’t complain. I was one of those lucky people who got better with age. I looked better at 45 than I did at 15 or 25. I kept thinking, hey this aging process is no sweat at all. Up until then I use to like to tell my age. Why? Because I would get the same reaction from everyone. “No way!” they would say. “You can’t be a day over 32 or 33!” I loved hearing those words and I didn’t mind turning 46, 47, and even 48. 

Me at 27             Me at 32                           Me at 46
                                                                                                      
Then something happened almost overnight! All of a sudden in no time at all, the years just caught up to me. I dreaded the big Five-O. No one told me that my thick hair would start to thin. Or that my eyes would start to shrink and my lips would disappear. “How?” you ask. Because the skin begins to sag and it changes your whole morphology.
                                                                                                         
My 19 year-old mind is trapped in an over 50 body, and this body constantly reminds me that I’m not 19 any longer! On that same shopping trip the other day, I got into my car and groaned as I slid into the driver’s seat just like my dad use to do when I was a kid! It really freaked me out!
                                   
The years slip by so quickly. We don’t realize just how short a life is when we’re young and there’s really no way for someone to understand that until they become old. That’s the irony of life.

Maya Muses: It’s not so bad really.  As we gradually grow older our eyesight gradually gets worse and thankfully we don’t see this deterioration that is taking place in front of us.  That is until we put our glasses on; personally I keep mine off as much as possible!

Photo Credits: Coolgates and My personal photos