What does it feel like to be 50 years old or older?

Age 72. It feels great. History is coming full circle, and repeating itself. For me, it's like deja vu. 

It feels great!  If I want to travel somewhere, I go.  I don't have to ask anybody's permission for anything.  Kids are grown, bills are paid.  It's great!

You know how it feels to be 17. You have your school, your family that you live with, and there are your friends or the other people you know, that you see and talk to outside of what you have to just for school and family, right?

And you can remember an earlier time in your life that was different from now. You went to a different school, either because you have moved or just because you were younger. Maybe you lived with the exact same family members, or maybe something changed about that. For sure there has been a change in who you see and talk to the most, outside of what you have to for school and family obligations.

As I've described this, you probably can think of at least 2 times in your life that were very different from now. For example, your years when you were in elementary school, your years in middle school, and your life now. 

If there any good friend that is still with you from elementary school, then you are lucky! 

Being over 50 is like what I just described to you. I have my life now, but I can also look back and remember my life in my 20's. Or my life in my mid 30's. Different times, different me, different people that I see and talk to. I remember my growing up years too, but it's not something i think of all the time now. In your 50's, if there is somebody you are close to, who knew you in your mid-thirties or even as far back as your 20's, you are very lucky! For the most part, we know different people in these later parts of ourselves, because we've changed so much ourselves, and because we and others have moved, changed jobs, etc. And because we've had different problems during our 50's than the ones we had in our 20's or 30's, so through them we met new people. 

If you had asked this question about being 40, I would have told you, quite truthfully, that in your 40's you feel like the same person on the inside as when you were 17. Still young like that on the inside, but nobody else sees it. They all just see your 40-something body, face, and life. 

But inside, you still feel like a kid sometimes.

In writing this I realized that my inner self finally caught up I guess. I feel fully grown up now, in a way that I really didn't even in my 40's. When you are in your 20's you will feel like you are faking being a grown up a lot of the time. When you're in your 30's and 40's, others will see you only as the adult you are, but inside you will still feel like that 17 yr old and just want to laugh and play sometimes, or just want to be protected and loved. (Possibly this is only a feminine perspective, idk.)

That is completely gone for me now, and I don't remember when it changed. Now I want to protect other people, my loved ones. Instead of wishing for a chance to let out my inner 17 yr old, I wish to be stronger, wealthier, in order to be even better able to protect my loved ones and myself too. When I work out, my goal isn't about being pretty, it's health I want, and strength. I don't love technology, but I'm forcing myself to learn it, to stay employable and competitive in the workplace. It's dangerous to be over 50. I had 2 friends die of Covid-19. I'm very aware that I've come to the age that people have heart attacks or cancer, and I have an aging parent who needs me. 

(Possibly some of why I'm so serious is having lived through this pandemic, and my outlook will lighten up again.) I'm afraid I made it sound awful, but it's not, it's just different.

You look in the mirror, some old greying guy looking back.

You get two decades older, your body starts to quit and you don't even recognize that old fart in the mirror.

17 years old, what high school senior ?,,a blink of an eye to me at 70.

Listen to 'Burning Bridges' by Mike Curb congregation.

I'm now 78, and I can't imagine what it feels like to have been on planet earth for that long,  I'm not even sure that I have been on earth all that time.  In fact, I'm not sure that's where I am now.  I'm a stranger in a strange land.

Years fly bye break-neck speed, and life's a triathlon. Your wild crazy or strange younger years catch up with you with slaps in the face.  50 years old is (Shock and Awe).  Don't understand what I write well you will when you're 50years old. 

I hope you live to twice that age

50 was nothing

At 50 i was in the best shape of my life.

I had lost 90 pounds by eating right and walking several miles a day.

I was climbing mountain trails and going on the long mountain trails that i hadn't been able to do since i was in High School.

I was taking ZERO meds and all my levels were normal.

50 felt like my peak because i had the same level of energy and stamina as when i was 18 yet my level of knowledge and skills were light years beyond.

I was still climbing 300ft cell towers and designing electronic circuits and inventing new methods and circuit designs.

I would play 18 holes of par 4 golf WALKING then take a water break then go 18 more.

I was still driving the ball 250 yards with a 1 iron so i never needed to carry a driver in the bag.

My eyes and ears were still as good as at 18 and my reflexes just as fast.

Never missed a day at work and rarely ever got sick.

While others getting yearly flu shots and the youngsters were all getting sick i never got so much as a sniffle.

The only few times i ever got the flu it only lasted a few hours and i just worked right through it.

50 is easy, now if i reach 70 and can still say all those things, then THAT would be something exceptional.

Feels pretty good.  At 65, I've got more drive and focus than I did at 17, still active professionally with a lab that's well funded, still reasonably fit, despite having to cut back on weekly training due to work.  Top end isn't what it used to be, but I can still keep up on training rides, and make the young guys eat my dust n' mud in cyclocross races.

Ha!!!Ha!!!Ha!!! I'm 79 years of age, and just keep going!!!  I keep away from Doctors(Medical Practitioners) , they are dangerous ; 'licenced to kill'. 

I can still ride my bicycle, walk 10 miles together, answer questions on Yahoo. As for women/females?????

Speaking for myself as a fifty-three year old, I feel I have missed lots of opportunities through not being able to perceive them, and that politics went the wrong way in 1979 and has never recovered.  There's also way less space travel than I was expecting.  But it's wonderful to be a grandparent.