I am now officially the mother of a 21 year old son. He turned 21 on Saturday November 4th of 2006. Funny thing is I don't really feel old at all, and I was only 26 years old when I had him, and fifteen months later I was 28 when his brother was born who will be 20 on February 7th of 2007.
A lot of people tell me that they feel old or older because their kids have grown up to be adults and even have their own families now. Well I believe that it is all a frame of mind. I honestly don't know whether it's just me, or if people my age really believe that they are old when their children grow up to adulthood. I know that I don't feel, look, or act old, and I won't, because I am not old. Just because my boys are out of their teen years and into the beginning of their adult years, does not mean that I have to become old and feeble and all that goes with that. I tell my family that I won't consider myself old until the day I am dead of natural causes...meaning actual old age. Like maybe living to over 100 years before I go. Which if I am lucky I will. There are actually people in my family that have lived well over a hundred years, so perhaps God will grant me that wish to live to that ripe old age of over a hundred with my health and faculties intact.
Either way, as long as I believe that I am young then I will be. The opposite goes for feeling old, if I do then I am, so I don't so I'm not. I think you get the idea. I want to be able to live a good long life with my family and friends. I would love to see my grandchildren and great grandchildren all grow up when the time comes, and be able to be there for each and every one of them, including my great great grandchildren and so on.
Perhaps Science will come up with something to keep us all young and alive and healthy forever. Would be nice. And by that time we will have moved to the stars and inhabited other planets with similar atmospheres as we have on earth. Sort of like an Issac Asimov novel or a Gene Rodenbury Novel, or even Ray Bradbury. Or even Larry Niven. All of whom are or were great authors in Science Fiction, along with many others.
All I know is, that I love my life and my family, and I want to enjoy every single moment of it completely. It's fun having people come up to me and ask how old I am, because when I tell them, they don't believe it. When they say that I am not the age I am I just show them my drivers' license that has my birthday on it, and then they believe me. They seem to be in awe that I don't actually look my age. I just hope I keep on aging "gracefully" as they say, as I go on in my years. It is nice to know that I still got it after all this time, even after two sons growing up.
My advice to those who believe that they are getting old just because their kids are older and have their own lives and/or families,is to believe just the opposite. If you remember the old saying of "You are what you eat!" well the same goes for thinking and believing, "You are as old or as young as what you think and believe you are!" On that premise I leave you with that little piece of advice because if you are anything like me, then you are not getting older, "you're getting better!"
