I remember what seems like a lifetime ago when I looked at a cute dress in a store window and wondered if it was too young for me. It shocked me when I had the sudden realization that (at the time) I was only in my mid-twenties. I felt so much older. That jolted me into confronting what was wrong with my life, which in time led to my divorce.
Now that I am out of dance, I no longer have the need for wearing very short and form-fitting training clothes, which I would buy at teenage whore stores – you know the type.
When being ignored by the staff there, I definitely was thinking that refrain. Now the only time I find myself saying, “I’m too old for this,” is when I find myself doing something I don’t want to do. Other than thinking it every single day during what will be referred to from here on out as “the job incident,” these events are normally few and far between.
I guess now I use the expression more to mean “life is too short for this.” That definitely applies to reading boring-to-me books and watching the second half of tedious plays … and operas. I’ll admit to being an instigator of minor exoduses during intermission, even among my friends who normally would never dream of doing such a thing.
I think part of the reason why I don’t think of myself as being too old doesn’t have to do with my being young at heart, but rather that I wasn’t all that different when I was younger. I have never pulled an all-nighter in my life. I wasn’t one to go bar hopping. I can count the number of times I’ve been drunk on my fingers. While I admit to being stupid in my youth, most of the time I kept my head on my shoulders. I remember once my mother in a rare fit of anger with me once said, “When you grow up, I hope you have a kid just like …. your sister.” Then she laughed and said wishing I had a kid like me wouldn’t be a punishment at all. At least it got me off the hook!
Right now I’m exploring some possibilities that would be giving me a lot more responsibility than I have ever had before. Most people in this position are half my age. My first thought on hearing that was thinking that they must be very mature for their age, much as I’d like to think I was.
What things make you think “I’m too old for this”? or Am I the only one who wasn’t a wild child in his/her youth?
Grown Up, Now What? 
I can imagine, with what I know of you Tammy, that you are an old soul – and that you WERE easy to raise. I was the same. My mother has often told me I was such an easy going, eager to please kid. I think it has to do with being the middle child. Your mother’s comment cracked me up.
AS you were listing the things you never got into as a kid, I was nodding my head in recognition.
I think I’m too old for this in social situations that get uncomfortable, people who are petty or boring, gossip, finishing books I don’t enjoy, fretting about my waistline (beyond what is good for my health) and eating junk. So, yes, I agree with you – it can also be twisted into, “life is too short.”
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My mom has often told me I was born with an old soul. Kurt (former dance partner) often told me that I was born several decades too late for my dance sensibilities. I think they – and you – are right. While I still had my lapses in judgement growing up, I wasn’t a wild child. This is yet more proof that we are secretly related!
Actually I did think of a situation in which I truly mean I’m to old for a situation – being around a group of 20-somethings who have gone out and spend all their time looking at their phones. That definitely brings out the “Get off my lawn” in me.
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“Get off my lawn…” I love it! I have always been told that I have an old soul and I tend to surround myself with others who are similar. Somehow, when the old souls get together, time and age doesn’t matter as much because we seem to have a similar perspective about life and the world and the people in it. I was the kid who didn’t get in trouble, didn’t pull wild stuff, didn’t do parties…I honestly never saw the point. I’d watch people around me doing it and think “what is the attraction, really?” I used to feel left out and lonely when I was the twenty-something because I just couldn’t get into the same things as others my age. I reached a point where I kind of got over it and just decided to accept who I am and own it – revelation! Not long after, I met my also old-soul husband and things are just as they should be.
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It is so comforting to hear that I wasn’t the only one watching what was going on around me and not understanding why anyone would want to do that.
I agree with your point that old souls, regardless of age, get along. I have friends of all different ages, and in thinking about it, we all do have old souls.
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The older you get, it seems the more you start saying what you’re too old for. That’s what I’ve concluded. When I was student teaching I saw what the kids were wearing and realized that I couldn’t pull any of those clothes off. I’d just like bizarre wearing them. Not that I’d want to anyway, but still.
I think the moment for me was when I went to a college party (for my undergrad) when it was a year after I graduated. I was still able to party, but priorities had changed so much that I found it hard to relate to what they were going through. Things change I guess.
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Things definitely do change. I’m so glad they do. I much prefer the person I’ve become to the person I was in my teens and twenties. Sounds like that is the case for you as well. Age definitely has its benefits.
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I’m too old for playing games. Truly. Although I have never been a fan of playing games (emotional or physical) so maybe I was always too old for them.
Tailgating. Much too old for that. It’s too much like campping, and if I wanted to go camping I would, but I hate camping, so I won’t.
I’m also too old for wearing hair accessories. My style just does not permit it. Also too old for ruffles at the chest area and triangle bikini tops.
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I think you are also part of the old-soul club. Life is definitely too short to do things you don’t want to do. If camping is one of those things, by all means don’t do it! And ruffles and hair accessories – unless it’s for a costume party, I’m with you there, too.
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