It creeps, then it leaps
Scary old age: Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard.
It creeps up on you imperceptibly—the tiny shock when you’re filling out a form and you have to compute the answer to “age”, the lone white hair sticking out on top of your head, running into classmates at the mall and being introduced to their tall, articulate children (They can speak now?!).
You shrug it off and console yourself with the observation that all the guys who were considered cute in school are now paunchy and losing their hair. Meanwhile you have to ask your stylist to layer your hair to make it less big or it will fill up the room. It was an excellent decision not to marry and have kids—not that you’d ever intended to get shackled for the purpose of expanding the gene pool. Your forehead is not ridged and creased like those of your contemporaries, and you can still move your eyebrows and face. Plus you’ll never feel the compulsion to read the text messages on your spouse’s phone or pay unannounced visits to the people in his directory.
But it continues creeping up on you and getting more and more conspicuous. Now you have to pretend not to notice that you just spent ten minutes plucking out white hairs from the back of your head using two mirrors and a spotlight. Now the vet says there’s really no need to have your cat spayed since she’s nine years old, which among felines is old. You raised her from kittenhood; what does that make you?
On the onset of age in Emotional Weather Report, today in the Star.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
January 22nd, 2010 at 04:02
growing old is FUN. but you have to caution with putting stuff on your face. most women I know look way older than guys of their age because they put a lot of those face products. not helping…
January 22nd, 2010 at 07:49
Ilang buwan na lamang at mawawala na sa letrang I ng BINGO ang aking edad. Nasa letrang N na sha sa isang taon, at ako’y… kinakabahan.
“Immaturity is forever.”
Siya pong tunay!
January 22nd, 2010 at 09:39
Here’s the link for people too old, este lazy to click more than once.
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=542717&publicationSubCategoryId=84
I hear ya Jessica. Just been to my high school 25th myself and found there were peers with less hair and more flab than me. Made me glad I went.
I first had my grim encounter with age when one day ages ago the Playmate of Month turned out to be older than I was.
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:52
another consolation is your contemporary’s surprise: “wow, na-guapa lagi ka! (wow, you’ve become pretty) meaning to them you were ugly before and now you’ve somewhat improved. you try to be courteous and shrug it off as “being a late bloomer” but at the back of your mind is “yes, thank you, but you’ve definitely become ugly.”
and i don’t think having children has anything to do with getting ugly in old age. my older sister has even become more beautiful.
one of the few times i remember i am getting older and no children is when i wear old shirts at work and office mates would comment on it and i tell them naah, this shirt is 9 years old, if this is a child, it’s already on grade 4!
Immaturity is when it satisfies me no end to get the better of my 5-year old nephew in a hide-and-seek game last vacation…heh heh heh
January 22nd, 2010 at 14:04
…like a beast in the jungle na hindi pwedeng iwasan. Sinalo ko nalang siya at eto parang mas masaya naman ang buhay.
January 22nd, 2010 at 16:54
the killers just cancelled their asian tour. check the twitterverse
January 22nd, 2010 at 17:18
What do you know, The Killers concert has been cancelled. Just like that Michael Jackson article..
January 22nd, 2010 at 19:55
Dammit these powers are so hard to control.
January 23rd, 2010 at 16:34
Great article.
One of the things that scare me every time I remember that I am not as young as I was is the fact that older people who I love would have aged, too. Every time I am reminded of this, I want to go home to them, hug them, and just eat and talk and watch T.V. and talk about politics and chismis with them all day.
January 24th, 2010 at 09:24
LOL! i, too, had one white hair sticking out on top of my head last week and my officemate laughed her head off as she could not concentrate on our conversation but kept staring at the infernal thing, instead!
my sis and i are in our thirties, and we both handle subordinates in each of our workplaces, which means to say that we are – in the eyes of our bosses – matured and responsible enough to supervise other people. but when we’re alone and have our differences, we sometimes resort to sticking out our tongues at each other!
January 24th, 2010 at 23:35
White hair should be called “wisdom hair.” Yeah, i got a couple. I was told not to pluck it because it will tend to multiply. I say it will multiply, pluck it or not. I’m tempted to dye my hair, but i know it will just cause the ends to split. Crap.
August 4th, 2010 at 07:40
I remember my friend saying once to his brother when he introduced him to me, “It’s rude to ask a woman his age”, then I said “No, it’s okay. Hindi ako nahihiyang sabihin kung ilang taon na akong nabubuhay sa mundo”. I know I spent the years of my life happily so I should never be embarrassed about it.
But I tried hiding my hiding my white hair, during high school I have a lot already. The ageing process is faster on me than others. ^_^