4 Unexpected Perks to Getting Older

We hear lots of negative things about aging. But there are perks to being in your sixties and beyond, the young don’t know about. Let’s just call these “our little secrets.” Here are four wonderful bonuses to getting up there…

You’ve earned slow mornings – When young, I used to wake up, get dressed, and zoom off to work. My mind was laser-focused on the commute and avoiding my boss once I got there. Years later, there were children to get off to school and early bustle and looking for shoes and backpacks and science projects.

Now I come into my morning kitchen, grab a mug of coffee, walk to the window, and peruse my backyard. I take note of what’s happened, sometimes literally overnight. I love watching the goldfish in the pond or the incredibly beautiful blue hydrangea this year. Every season has its magic and what a pleasure to have the time to examine it first thing.

Getting to know your community better– When young I didn’t pay much attention to the bank tellers or who poured my cup of joe at the coffee shop. I was too busy getting stocked up for the ride to work or going through my to-do list.

Now I love saying hello to Mark, the Asian man who gives me a manicure. I enjoy the women that run the ‘Mom and Pop’ coffee shop down the street. It’s nice to hear, “Laurie! Your order’s up!” Our local farm has Claudia, a young Guatemalan woman behind the register and she tells me about her plans and dreams. I now feel a need to connect to my neighborhood in ways I never did before.

You feel no shame in being “early birds” – My husband Randy and I used to shake our heads at those older people leaving restaurants just as our young, raucous party was arriving. We couldn’t imagine being out that early and missing the fun!

Guess what? The joke was on us. Now we love being in the early shift. The restaurant is subdued and quiet. We no longer compete for those coveted Friday and Saturday reservations. Tuesday is fine. The servers are friendlier and less frazzled. We can still people-watch as the tables fill up. But once it gets too noisy—and yes, raucous—it’s nice to say, “Check please.”

You appreciate what got you here — Do you ever look at a picture of yourself from your teens or twenties or even thirties and think, who is that? It feels lifetimes ago that I was an eager, long-haired young woman going off to college. Or the young mother with a baby on one hip and toddler in hand. Then there was the forty-year-old housewife who decided she wanted to be a writer and sat down at that first keyboard.

When we get older, we gain the perspective to see the different stages in our lives. We understand what brought us to this point—the struggles, lessons, disappointments, sorrows, and joys. It’s an incredible gift to see yourself with older, wiser eyes.

Yes, there are perks to getting older. But self-knowledge might be the best “little secret” of all.

 

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