Why I Like Getting Older

Youth is sometimes overrated.

In many cultures, youth is prized. We sell anti-aging skin serums, use beautiful young people as brand ambassadors, and tell young people that high school/university/their twenties will be the “best years” of their lives.

At 26, I’m still relatively young, but as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to the realization that youth is overrated. Sure, it’s nice to not fear breaking a bone over a simple slip and fall, but mentally, the older I’ve gotten, the happier I’ve become.

There’s no escaping it: I’m getting older! And so are you. In the spirit of optimism, here are a few things to look forward to.

Disasters Are No Longer Disasters

As kids, every little wrong thing feels like a disaster. We cry when we spill our food, lose a toy, or fall down.

As young adults, we understand that spilled drinks and stolen toys are nothing to cry over, but we still cry over things like unrequited love and lost job prospects. And while these things can be legitimately distressing, the older I get, the more I accept them as natural parts of life. Not everyone you like will like you back, and that’s okay. You won’t score every job you apply to, and that’s okay.

Maturity has made me more realistic and rational. I have learned not to stake my emotional well-being on every little thing, to stop crying disaster. And I know that some of things I think of as disasters today, one day I’ll look back at them and laugh.

Better Body Image

A 2014 Gallup poll discovered that older adults had more positive body image than younger and middle-age adults. This surprised me at first. Aren’t bodies most beautiful when they’re young, when they haven’t been aged with stretch marks and excess fat?

Then I realized older people might not like their bodies more because they think they’re beautiful, but because they’ve simply learned not to hold their bodies to impossible standards.

As a younger person, I worried about being too fat, too short, or having too much acne. I worried that other people wouldn’t find me attractive, and that I would be judged for that.

I still worry about how I look sometimes, but these days I’m more interested in how I feel in my body. I do my best to keep my body strong and healthy by eating and exercising well, but I’m less concerned about my proportions and imperfections.

I’ve gotten better at wearing what I like and expressing myself authentically. I walk around in public with more confidence, and that confidence likely makes me more physically attractive.

More Resources

The older I’ve gotten, the more resources I’ve amassed. I have more money today than I did as a teenager, because I’ve worked longer and have the experience to score higher paying jobs. Of course, there are exceptions (like when debts and dependents come into play), but in general, the older you get the more wealth you accumulate.

But even if you’re not doing well financially, as an older person, you probably have more resources now than you did as a teenager. For example, I understand the public system better now, so I know who and where to call for help around specific issues. I also know more people, so I have more contacts to call for various expertise.

And I simply know how to do more things. I can cook more meals, fix more computer glitches, and solve more problems than I used to. And I’m constantly learning new skills, so I foresee life will be even easier when I’m thirty or forty years old.

Less Sensitive to Judgement

When I was in school, I always idolized peers I found cool. I wanted to be just like them, and I wanted them to like me. This led me to do things I didn’t genuinely enjoy, and when people didn’t like me as much as I liked them, my emotions suffered.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to care less about other people’s opinions. Sure, it’s sometimes good to hear feedback from individuals you respect, but it’s unhealthy to rely on other people’s definitions for happiness and success. There are certain things in life you have to define for yourself in order to live authentically and experience true fulfillment.

I’ve also learned to let some people go. You can yearn for the approval of others forever and ever, but the truth is, not everyone you like will like you back as much. If someone isn’t willing to give their time and companionship to you, why should you make time for them?

More Wisdom

Young people can be very intelligent. They can invent wonderful machines, create amazing art, and achieve scientific milestones. But wisdom, I think, is a little different. Wisdom comes with age.

I am a big fan of the Serenity Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

This prayer, or mantra, or whatever you want to call it (I personally believe it transcends religions) has helped me a lot as an anxious person with OCD. But I’ve often struggled with that last part, the wisdom to know the difference, because sometimes it’s very difficult to parse the difference between things you should change and things you should accept.

This piece of the puzzle has gotten easier with age, though. Of course, I am still relatively young and I still run into wisdom challenges, but I must say I am in a much wiser place than I was at 16.

More Depth

When I was younger, I understood the world in narrower ways. For example, I thought the only way to make social change was to be loud about telling other people to change. I thought I needed to become a very famous writer in order to have my voice heard. I thought this would fix things like social inequality and climate change.

Now, I have a more complex and nuanced understanding of social problems — and how to solve them. Instead of focusing my efforts on making my voice heard, for example, I’ve learned to look within myself — to examine my own internalized racism, homophobia, sexism, etc. — rather than simply telling other people to examine theirs.

In other words, I’ve become humbler and more self-aware, and I think that in itself makes the world a better place. No need to do something drastic like publish a book!

Youth Is Great, but Aging Isn’t Bad Either

Of course, there are obvious benefits to being young. Your body is more efficient, less prone to injury, and younger people technically look more sexually attractive.

However, there are definite upsides to getting older! My moral of the story is, we shouldn’t fear getting old. Sometimes, we should even embrace it. Maturity can bring wisdom, experience, resources, and more contentment.