WHAT is wrong with getting old?
Why is it suddenly a trend to knock years off your age? Growing old is a luxury not everyone is granted so enjoy your years on this earth and don’t try and hide your age.
It has almost become an insult to refer to someone as old.
Why is this? Every second advert on TV is about anti-ageing lotions and potions. There isn’t a picture in a glossy magazine that hasn’t been photoshopped.
We see Hollywood stars look 20 years younger than they are thanks to a few clicks of a computer button. We have created impossible and unrealistic images that are destroying confidence in the weaker of our society.
Almost all of those involved in the showbiz industry have turned to plastic surgery to try to regain a few years. Why have we allowed this happen? When are we going to stop this madness?
Growing up as a teenager I couldn’t wait to be eighteen to legally have a drink, although if I am honest I had indulged at a much earlier age.
The stride of pride walking past the bouncers of the local nightclub wishing and hoping that they would ask for me for ID was like something out of a comedy.
Recently, on a trip to San Francisco, I was asked for ID and I thought it was hilarious.
I am 42 and proud to say it, so the thought that I was asked to produce ID to prove I was over 21 was amusing to say the least.
Granted I know that almost everyone is “carded” in the US but at double the legal requirement I did get a laugh.
A few years ago I met a girl I hadn’t met in years and she invited me to her 30th birthday.
I reminded her that she was older than me and I had celebrated my own 30th a good few years prior.
Needless to say I was uninvited. Clearly amnesia of some sort had happened to her in the years that I hadn’t seen her.
What is wrong with admitting our age? Every wrinkle, every scar and every laughter line tells a story, some good and some bad but a story.
A story of our lives! Botox, fillers and plastic surgery remove all these and in doing so remove part of our past, our growing up.
Abraham Lincoln famously once said, “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that counts. It’s the life in your years”.
Life is for living and if you concern yourself with trying to forever stay young, you are missing out on so much. Forget about what society has been drilling into us and don’t be afraid of your age.
Today is the oldest you have ever been and it is also the youngest you will ever be again.
Until next week,
Remember that growing old can be fun, if you do it with the right people!
Orlagh xx