From Depositphotos.
I recently saw an article by a woman who identified as 23. She was admiring a 93 year old who was still driving and full of life. “I want to be like her when I get older,” she wrote.
If there’s one thing I want to tell someone in their twenties or thirties, even forties, it’s, “The world won’t look the same when you’re older.”
Many years ago I was a young girl riding home on the bus. I would see older women who were riding alone, looking wistfully out the window, fresh from a day of shopping, holding a little department store bag. They were dressed up with nice suits, make-up, and of course “heels and hose,” nylon stockings and shoes with a small heel.
This was well over fifty years ago and I remember thinking, “Maybe I’ll morph into a dressed up, well-put-together version of myself when I’m their age.”
I’m probably older now than those women were when I saw them. Rather than “put together” I’m usually described as “looking like she just got out of the gym.” And I don’t know anyone who spends the day shopping. The stores they visited were closed a long time ago.Just going back 50 years – a smaller gap than the article writer imagined:
I’m writing this in 2026 so that would be 1976…
…the first year women were admitted to the military service academies in the US. The WNBA wasn’t even imagined.
The world of jobs looked very different. “Tech” wasn’t a job field and a lot of today’s jobs – like project managers – didn’t exist.
Bonnie Tiburzi joined American Airlines as the first female airline pilot in 1973; today women are landing fighter jets on carrier decks.
Besides the social changes, you’re going to change as a person.
I’ve gone from suffering through gym classes, and cutting as many as possible, to working out and being fit. I take classes with women who sign up for an exercise program as casually as they choose a dentist. They’ll age differently from today’s 90-year olds.
Years ago I had a wardrobe of suits and dresses. I liked dressing up. About ten years ago I was doing a comedy show when I said I hadn’t worn a dress in fifteen years. The gay male host joked afterwards, “I’ve worn lots of dresses in the last fifteen years!
In fact, I’d never gone to a comedy club till I performed in one at a fairly advanced age.
Even more important, the world’s perception of you can change.
I always knew I’d grow up to be single with cats; I didn’t want a family. People thought I was weird.
Today we can point to dozens of articles, books, and even college courses about single people. And I proudly proclaim my identity as a crazy cat lady.
People often ask older people, “What would you tell your younger self?” My younger self was too stubborn to listen to anything I might have said.
But I know what I’d say to the twenty-something women who are writing those articles about fast-forwarding 20 or 50 more years. I’d say be ready to ride a roller coaster.
I’d tell them to prepare for the unexpected in themselves and in other people. Job opportunities will change. You’ll change. So you might as well do what you want and take a lot of reasonable risks.
As people used to say, “Hold on to your hat!”
When someone asks what you want your life to be like when you get old, the best answer is, “It hasn’t been invented yet.”
