What are the signs you've noticed that you're getting older?

Holidays are a blur. I don't remember individual years anymore, and every year I'm started at how quickly it became Christmas already.
Ffs we're halfway through February already. I was just putting up the tree like 3 days ago.
- Too real. Not just holidays, weeks and months go by and it's like "shit when did it get to 2025??"
  
  Covid made it especially bad. Covid started five years ago. Started, like we first heard the term "Covid"
- Children, which to me is everyone born in the 2005+ are already turning 20. Hell, the iPhone can already vote.
  
  Also, Gangnam style. 13 years ago.
  
  Btw I was born in 2004 and I'm 20
- Are you also in your 30s? Haha

my fucks slowly run out
- Honestly I’ve been getting much happier the less fucks I give.
  
  Inverse correlation
- This has become my theme song.
- This is the plus side of being older.
  I've been burned enough times in life that it's really easy to just write people off that I shouldn't have let in my life anyway, and I'm much happier in my own little world with my books.
- it does get marginally better once you do run out.

A girl that stopped me on the street to ask directions concluded the exchange with “Thank you sir.”
Also, the waiters now automatically bring the bill to me when I have lunch with coworkers.
- In the south that’s just being nice, not age
  
  I think they mean specifically to them, and not their coworkers
- That first happened to me at 18 and it was so weird. I was helping out at my old school for an interschool music festival—a week of all sorts of different workshops and rehearsals between different schools, culminating in a concert at the end. During a break I was tinkering around on the piano, and a student came up to me and said "excuse me, sir…[some question about the timetable or something, that I definitely didn't have the level of authority to know the answer to]". I have her the best answer I could and she went on her way, but I was just stuck there feeling way too old.

Time feels way faster as you get older.
It's also pretty grim that the people you know are either dying, dead, or have a life altering illness that comes out of nowhere. I feel like there's a funeral in my family once a month, rather than once every decade.
- Hot take but I think it’s because people stop having or seeking out novel experiences. Most of people’s lives are repetitive and boring jobs with barely any time to zone out in the evening. And once your kids move out and you’re with a long term partner, hardly anything is dynamic in your life. Or fresh. Or unexpected.
  
  Having to do something on a weekday evening is a huge inconvenience.
- I feel you, I hate it.

I don't distrohop or tinker with my Linux install anymore. I just install Linux Mint XFCE edition and don't even bother changing the background.
- 20+ years ago i spent hours each day developing my own lcars interface based on enlightenment; now i just use whatever x-windows environment the distro i'm using at the moment defaults to.
  we must be twins separated at birth. lol
- Me too. But I stopped hopping ten years ago and settled down on Alpine, Void, or Gentoo, based on how fancy the hardware is, and the use case.
  To me, the hopping part relates more to tinkering and fine-tuning. Today I prefer things just work. I wish no down time on all my devices and servers, because who has time to figure out why my photo doesn't sync to my NAS, or dig up that piece of paper when my password manager does not respond because of the proxy service is down?
- Tech also just isn't advancing and changing as much as it was when we were younger so it's not as exciting anymore
  
  I don't get that at all. To me it feels like there's so much progress happening right now.
  
  And when it does change it's to enshittify it. It's been a decade since I was excited about any new technology. I used to love it too.
  
  I don't think this is true.
  It's not exciting to me any more because I hate the way it's changing the world.
  In the 2010s it felt like tech would save us.

all my friends are either dead or my enemies

Male pattern baldness sucks, esp as a trans girl
Injuries take longer to heal and recovery from the gym is slower
Hangovers now take two days
Skin dries out much faster (though this might be due to E)

Lots of things like grey hair, moving more slowly, injuries that I would have bounced away from before instead hurting for weeks or months.
But the one that hit hardest was a breakup I had a little while back. She was the love of my life and I fully intended to marry her, and when she ended it out of nowhere I was sad, but fine. She dumped me, and it sucked, but I also needed to finish a staff report for a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting that night. So I moved on.
The thing that upset me most was that I wasn't that upset. There was a time in my life when I would have been a mess. But as I've aged, my emotions have become more regulated.
I miss being capable of that level of joy and pain.
- Love definitely hits different in your 20's. Though, the plus side is when something ends I don't obsess over it like I did as a young man.
  I remember in the mid-2010's when Guns n Roses decided to reunite and tour, and my first thought was: "Why would I want to watch Axl Rose now that he's old and fat?" That was a sign.
- I had a similar experience a few years ago. I haven't even tried dating again because trying to rework my life to incorporate another person at this point just sounds like a giant pain in the ass and I'm old enough now that it seems like everyone I meet around my age who's still single is living a train wreck of a life so it wouldn't be worth the effort anyway.

You don’t feel older mentally, but your body starts to betray you. I don’t mean stuff like your legs aching after getting up when sitting on the floor, or getting tired easier; it’s the subtle things that really are irritating. Like taking longer to learn something. Getting fatter even though you don’t really think your diet is bad. Taking longer to find that word you can’t think of or the name of that person, movie, place, whatever.
The irritations that add up are the ones that you don’t really expect, not just the ones you do like needing glasses.
Then there’s “time.” Fucking day goes too quick. Used to be you felt like you could get all kinds of shit done in a day. Now? Run two errands and half the day is gone. Wtf.
Also, “lasts”.
You start to realize that there are things approaching that are the last time you’ll see or do something. The last time you visit where you grew up. Last time your kid lived at home. Last car you’ll ever own.
Yeah, the lasts suck.
- Also, “lasts”.
  You start to realize that there are things approaching that are the last time you’ll see or do something. The last time you visit where you grew up. Last time your kid lived at home. Last car you’ll ever own.
  Yeah, the lasts suck.
  I remember being in college, and this Onion article gave me a little bit of an existential crisis.
  
  Ouch
- The weight gain is really the big sign shit is going down hill. I've been making a series of changes since about age 35, and each time the new diet or exercise routine works for like a year or two and then the weight slowly creeps back up. At this point I literally ride a bike 200 miles per week and I will still gain weight slowly if I eat breakfast. It makes no sense.
  
  It sucks. I like breakfast! On the bright side, two cups of coffee and I am not hungry for the next two hours and by then it is almost lunch time so I guess it works out. Brunch it is!

I don't feel happy
- I feel like this is not a part of getting older. Arent there things that are exiting to you or make you happy?
  
  Not many. Not as much as it used to be

It was when I tripped and fell over outside my house. The next day my neighbour said, "I hear you had a Fall."
Yes, when you're old you don't fall over, you "have a Fall". Everyone hearing about your Fall will make concerned noises. (I was perfectly fine! I'm not OLD old!)
- I thought you're gonna say a dad joke so I will!
  At least you didn't have a Winter
  
  Well that took me a minute - oh, autumn, you're talking about autumn! Ha ha, excellent dad joke.

Nobody mistakes me for a teenager anymore.
Kids call me "lady"
I want to go to bed at 9 PM
I get excited for new appliances

Looks at a picture of a family dinner from 10 years ago. One third of the people are now dead…

Eyesight is getting worse. It's hard to read in dim light, and driving at night can be rough.
Takes my body longer to recuperate from anything that it doesn't like - injuries, alcohol, upset stomach.
Age spots. I thought they were just freckles but my dermatologist says they're age spots. I'm only 43!
Aging is funny, because there's always someone who thinks you're ancient, and there's always someone who thinks you're still super young. I was at a bar a couple weeks ago, and these two dudes were complaining about how old they were getting.... so I asked, turns out they were the ripe old age of twenty-eight. Which made me laugh a little, because 28 is still pretty young. And when I told them I was 43 they couldn't believe it. I guess in my twenties I didn't have an accurate idea of what people in their forties looked like either. Conversely when I made some comment to my parents about being middle-aged, they laughed at me because "you're in your forties, you're not middle-aged!". So it's all relative. My dad said something that stuck with me: you may feel like you're getting older, but when you're my age (he's 75) you'll realize how young you still were, and how much energy you had. And that's helped me be aware that even though there are some aspects of aging that I really hate, there are plenty of good healthy years left.
- I like this comment the best. These points are all true, undeniable. Aging is funny cause you never can tell how old someone is.
  I work at a liquor store with a college feel and holy shit I card everyone!!

Feeling confident without makeup.
Realizing that the pillars of success written by governments or institutions is bullshit and caring more about good people.
Feeling comfortable with a small social bubble. Quality over quantity.
Valuing naps over parties. 😴

Made breakfast this morning. Now my wrist hurts.
- Damn. I made tomorrow and tonight's dinner. My back is fucked.
  Good news: burgers+fries were tasty and I'm looking forward to the shepherd's pie tomorrow.
  
  Like a pro!
- And sneezing then having a pain in your back from it.
- The solution to this is to make breakfast in the afternoon 👍

Waking up with a new pain and having to make it the new normal.
- So very much this. Waking up now includes logging what does and does not hurt. It sucks.

It takes exponentially longer to heal from physical injury. That's it so far, except for feeling calmer - older people are exceptional at emotional regulation, which oddly enough is why they are easier to scam, they don't freak out as quickly.
But mostly it's the slow healing. I am still strong and flexible but have to be careful and moderate because getting hurt will set me back much more than it used to.
My mom once made plans to come up here (she lived near Miami) to see Tab Benoit with some of her friends - by the day of the concert two of them were dead! She said "if you want to see your friend when you are old, go see them, don't make plans."

I have to keep scrolling further and further back every year on age verification for websites.
- If the website only uses two digit years, eventually you'll hit a time where you don't need to scroll at all.

At 30 you reach the peak.
At 40 you start to have small health problems that don't go away and are mostly annoyance.
At 50 you seek help because it's more than annoyance. You get your first permanent medication.
At 60 it's somewhat limiting and for the first time causing Intermediate pain.
At 70 it's debilitating and pain is a familiar companion. You might have your first seizures.
At 80 if it hasn't killed you yet, it soon will. You are probably an invalid or close to it.
At 90 if you are still hanging on, you are waiting for death and welcoming it.
That's pretty much it, ±10 years.
- Then people call me insane for not wanting to make it past 40
  
  That is what I "always" thought, motorcycling will get me and I wouldn't want to live without being able to ride ... but then it happens, you don't and you get to live with what you never though you would be. ...
  Some friend came along today and had Frank Sinatra "my way" playing for a ring, immediately I searched the tube and found Sid Vicious' "my way" and played it back ... he never got old. I guess they can take our lives away but we get to keep the mind young if we want... and look back to see if we are happy with choices, even the worst mistakes.
  The weirdest feeling is that the older you get the more you feel time is accelerating ... you get older faster and faster after a certain age.
- If you spend most of your teenage and adult years over the weight of 220 pounds you can move your timetable ahead 10 - 15 years. Permanent medication at 30 or 40, debilitating pain especially in the knees at 45, heart problems anytime from 40-60, welcoming death at 80,
- bleak

Cuts and such heal WAYYYYY more slowly.
I also seem to bruise easier.

diminished eyesight, especially at night.
oh, and of course, making some references that some of the youngsters don't understand.
(also, using the term "youngsters")

I no longer feel a sense of unrealised potential for myself I guess. That's it, I've got what I've got.

Not being able to see at night when the lights turn off
Injuries take longer to recover from
Headlights in the opposite direction cause troubles
Dashboard indicators (like high beams) are much brighter, annoyingly so.
- Oh man I hear ya in headlights and dashboard lights. NIght driving is getting to be pretty rough for me.
- Hehe. On mine the cruise, high beam and fog light indicators don't dim with the rest of the dash board.
  Luckily they're all along the top row in the centre, so I drape the glasses cleaning cloth over the dashboard to form a little curtain.
  I'm in a rural area.
  
  Same here!! Why don't they dim with the rest of the dashboard lights??
  It's almost to the point I'm putting some electrical tape over them. Can't wait to have a car with self dimming lights, then I'll tape over it and keep them toggled on forever without worries

The clothing styles I wore in middle school are cool now, except those damn low rise flares will not work on me at 40 because my mid-section would flab out everywhere. Damn kids.
My shoulder still hurts from last week when I slept funny.
The idea of staying out past 10pm sounds terrible.
I almost set up a breakfast date with a friend for 7am.
I'm really excited for a larger capacity water heater.
I'm starting to do that thing where I look down to focus on small text right in front of me.

If a terrorist held a gun to my head and ordered me to get on my knees, I would simply have to let them blow my head off because that is no longer possible. Also I have that slight wrinkle at the top of my cleavage, which apparently I can get Botox for. But I'm not going to.
- I didn't know you could botox that!
  
  Apparently so! Decolletage injection it's called.

Eyesight started going in mid 40s. Still not happy about it.
- Damn, that’s a long run!
- I had perfect vision for decades and then it suddenly went to shit. Found out there's no preventing it, no lifestyle changes to make it better. It's just gone. Presbyopia can't be prevented or fixed. Feels bad, man.

Past 25 I started to realise I couldn't remember everything that everyone had said to me. This was also around the time I developed a social life, so it could just be that my brain had more to manage socially.
Past 30, I stopped caring about appearances so much and started working on developing mental skills. I was able to defend my beliefs better, make more on-the-spur jokes.
Past 35, I no longer care about anything. I have bouts where I'm in interested in building things, or conversing. But now? Eh, work/sleep is enough.

It's interesting to me that I don't see myself aging in the bathroom mirror…until I put on my glasses. Then it's obvious. Also, I didn't used to need glasses. But nature's gaussian blur filter is awesome. My wife looks as good as the day I met her too!

At age 30, I noticed I couldn't skimp on sleep anymore and hangovers were much worse than in my 20's.
In my mid-30's my eyesight started to blur and I had to start wearing glasses.
At 40, my digestion isn't as good as it used to be and I take supplements. Also, it's harder to memorize things now, and I no longer have the option of missing workouts or daily stretching, because I notice it much more if I haven't done these things.

I got excited about a sale on toilet paper. It was 50% off for 30 rolls of the really high quality one!
- Ah but you're not really a proper old guy until you get a bidet and start bitching about how medieval everyplace you go is that doesn't have one.

My knee hurts when it's raining.
- And Your Living in the UK.

I don't enjoy gaming anymore
- I don't think that's a age thing.
- I don't enjoy live service games or multiplayer PVP anymore.
  I've elevated to single player only experiences or PvE only
- I still do but I just don't have time for any serious gaming, so it's only quick or indie games for me. But I think I could see myself get back into an MMO or something when I'm retired.

Got excited about a four slot toaster that I bought.
- _fuck

Not replying to as many of these types of posts is one of them

I took a shower and my knee hurts. Like fuck.
- Either you or I take showers very wrong
  
  I'll tell you when you're older

The realization that I may never live to see capitalism collapse

Hungovers last longer, so do injuries from sport, easier to put on weight, less patience for bullshit, more selective with whom I spend my time with... There are so many!

Driving at night just sucks.
- I hit that in my mid 20s. Turned out my headlights sucked and I needed to clean the inside of my windshield.
- Aww I love that you still go out at night though. I don't unless I bus.
- Weirdly enough I got way better at night driving post-40.

When i was young i could sleep on a staircase and walk off next day as if nothing happened.
But now i sleep on pillow with slight angle and the next day is hell with neck and mid back pain.
Also alcohol tolerance reduced
- I feel both of these. I'm 40 and yeah, sleeping slightly weirdly I get shoulder pain the next day. Working out regularly has definitely helped things. Also for alcohol, I have to be careful to also include non-alcoholic drinks in an evening, say a non-alcoholic beer or something before the real thing.

Losing the people you love in very different ways.

These are all cute, but when you start to lose your balance just turning your head or with basic movements, you really start to feel old.
It's only a matter of time before you start falling.
Once you start falling, you start dying slowly

Hair falling out

I worked construction from 14-20. Nowadays I work a cushy desk job. Still whenever we need something sone in our house (which is a lot, my house is a degrading shack) if it's something I'm comfortable doing I do it myself. Every once in a while there's a job that just kills me and I feel like I need a week to recover from.
Last weekend I put new drywall up on my kitchen ceiling. I used to do it all the time with ease, by myself, light work. Nowadays I'm glad my wife wasn't home to see me struggling. I had to pull out all my tricks and it was still fucking rough.

The rage inside has only ever increased. The older I get the more militant I get. By the time I'm 40 I'll be living in the forest defending my country from fascists with a bow and arrow.

New technology is harder to adopt.
- I have this theory that, unless it’s an area of interest, professional or otherwise, you stop learning about tech when you leave school.

My age keeps increasing.
- Do you have to calculate it now though? I have to go let's see, I was born in the year… It used to be innate knowledge.

Using any tool that vibrate much like a string trimmer will irritate where my spine is pinched and I'll regret it for months. It makes me feel useless. Fusing 4 discs in my upper back or neck would almost guaranteed make me feel more useless.
I definitely can't pretend I'm young anymore. It isn't just pain, and when it is pain it's not the worst pain. It makes me unable to feel my arm. I had to get an epidural of steroids to get the inflammation down to get feeling back, and I seem to be at least mildly allergic to that .

I got gout and shingles
- My poor wife got shingles at 39 last year. Her doc was like "yeah it's definitely shingles, welcome to firmly middle aged"

Whatever im doing i gotta be careful or ill fuck my back up

While listening to the oldies radio station and hearing music that was popular while you were in high school
- When did Nirvana become classic rock?
  
  We're well past that day. Foo Fighters are played on our Classic Rock station.
  
  Considering the Bowling for Soup's song 1985 from 2003,
  I'd say around 2013, which makes Bowling for Soup also classic rock.
- Can't relate to the whole listening to oldies radio stuff but listening to new music from fantastic young bands and realizing you are probably never going to another live gig in your life is a bit unsettling. Also realizing you should have learned stuff like musical instruments decades earlier when you had more flexibility and it felt like learning was faster.
  
  Yeah I felt I dated myself by talking about listening to the radio. I don't know if this is of any help to you: I started taking guitar lessons at 50 and although I may never perform publicy, I enjoy just playing alone or with a few jam buddies. Around the same time I started going to punk shows again and after a little time made friends with some of the regulars (just like old times). Covid and inflation derailed that but I still make it out a few times a year. We all have our own personal obstacles though

Your former school teachers die. At this point, I think the majority of mine is gone.
Your gum recedes, and there's nothing you can do about it except to stop smoking. On a larger scale, your circulation gets worse because your erythrocytes become less elastic, for reasons still unknown. Add to this the most damaging impact of UV light and our atmosphere's oxygen - an objectively very aggressive chemical - and you start shriveling, just withering away from the outside. Molecular bonds are simply getting broken faster than they get repaired. Your insides last a bit longer, but their days are numbered, too.
On the plus side, you'll get to learn new words for body parts you didn't even know you had.
- Just wait until your first student dies

I’ve started to lose height as I get older instead of gaining it

Time passing.
- They Might Be Older (Still)

My wife and I get excited every time we come across articles about exoskeleton tech. Can we expedite this a little? I want a mech suit—not a fucking wheelchair—when I reach that age.
Also, a note to the designers: make sure you can use the toilet with it. Extrapolating current trends, I suspect this will become one of my primary activities.