What’s My Age Again?

All because of a text that came in with my 5k race results, I’ve had Blink 182’s What’s My Age Again? song from 1999 in my head all day. 

Don’t worry - this isn’t a blog about being 40 and dealing with all the life changes women deal with at 40 and the hundreds of dollars worth of products that line the shelves of my bathroom that claim to reverse the look of aging.  Rather, this blog is about how, until today, I never actually thought of myself as 40 years old.

I was really excited about getting the text with my race results.  But neither the bib number nor the chip time in the text caught my attention.  It was the “Age: 40” listed underneath my name in small text that stood out to me.  I sat there, sitting on the pavement in the middle of a parking lot while other runners were crossing the finish line and I couldn’t focus on anything else.  I just couldn’t stop staring at that number.  I turned 40 last December so every race I’ve run this year has had the same number on it.  But for some odd reason seeing it today really stuck out.  Sitting there I realized - I am 40 years old.  

Over the past 10-15 years or so, I guess I still considered myself to be in my late 20s or early 30s regardless of the many birthdays I celebrated.  I mean, when people talk about COVID I feel like they are talking about last year until I do the math and realize - oh shit, that was almost 5 years ago.  

I won’t use the cliche, ‘it feels like yesterday’ but where did my 20s and 30s go?  A lot has happened over the past two decades but it still seems like it was “just a couple years ago” and not 10 or 20 years ago.  Especially when a song from my past comes on.  I’ll feel like it just came out a fews ago but when I look it up I realize it was 20 - 30 years ago.  Talk about a punch in the gut.  That’s exactly what happened when I looked up the Blink 182 song.  I was sure it came out in the early 2000s.  But nope… 25 year ago!  WOW.  Wasn’t I just blaring this CD out the windows of my my red Pontiac Grand Am?  Oh wait…. that WAS 25 years ago.  

The good news is - I feel young.  I feel good.  Actually, I feel better than I have ever felt before.  I am healthier.  I am active and physically fit.  And some of my closest and dearest friends are in their 20s.  So after singing What’s My Age Again on repeat in my head all day I reminded myself age is just a number and 40 is the new 30 right?