MetaChat - What age would you be if you didn't know your age?

35.

I got stuck at 27 for a long time, but I seem now to have skipped ahead a few years of my real age.

posted by occhiblu 25 March | 11:03

My sense of physical decrepitude seems par for 42. However, I'm easily as bitter as an arthritic 70 year old.

posted by Joe Beese 25 March | 11:11

I've been here forever, so that makes me infinity old I guess.

posted by Meatbomb 25 March | 11:30

Probably early 20s, but out of school, so maybe around 22-23ish. (Although most of the time I feel like I'm all of 5 years old since I have a tendency to do 'childish' things.)

I like ranges more than actual ages anyways.

posted by sperose 25 March | 11:33

For the first time in my life I feel the exact age that I am.

posted by serazin 25 March | 11:34

I have never felt "age-appropriate" and most people guess me to be early-to-mid 30s, even though I'll be 45 in a couple of months.

So I guess the answer to your question is "whatever works for you, baby"

posted by WolfDaddy 25 March | 11:34

I'm often surprised by the physical signs of aging that are creeping in, so I guess I feel like I'm some age younger than my own 39 often. Couldn't put a number on it, though.

posted by Stewriffic 25 March | 11:36

Ask me again after I get my California Pot Card.

posted by Ardiril 25 March | 11:47

There's that great Satchel Paige quote: "How old would you be, if you didn't know how old you was?"

For me ... 35.

posted by Kangaroo 25 March | 11:57

well, according to the mister right now it's somewhere around 8, but I'm thinking his opinion is likely still biassed by the gigantic snowball-fight-that-degenerated-into-a-mud-fight during a recent hike. Also, fart jokes.

according to how whiny I feel getting out of bed on a cold, damp morning before an impending spring snowstorm? about a hundred and forty-six.

ymmv.

posted by lonefrontranger 25 March | 11:59

34. I'm 36.

posted by Specklet 25 March | 12:08

I feel older than I am recently, probably because I am tired and stressed and most of my colleages and friends are a few years older. So maybe 31.
But when people see me or meet me, they often think I am younger than I am so I guess I act/look/sound more like 24. (Actual age = 28)

posted by rmless2 25 March | 12:11

I think I've always been about 35. Which didn't go over so well when I was, say, 4.

I'm 30.

posted by Madamina 25 March | 12:18

I feel around 60. (Really 40.) Not quite old enough to throw in the towel, and still quite capable of doing lots of activities, but weary of the repetition of things, like SNL or politics, sick of movies where I think "this is the same plot of ---- which was 20 years ago...)

posted by Melismata 25 March | 12:28

10 - 15 = 20
15 - 18 = 22
18 - 34 = 24
34 - 36 = 28
27 GRSKLHGKHGDLKLKSJHLKHGKLDHLHCNAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR

posted by goshling 25 March | 12:34

I kind of suspect that I'll always be in my thirties in my head. Depending on the week, maybe early, maybe late, but always in my thirties. The last little while, I've definitely been feeling 31-32 tops.

My girls keep teasing me because I'm leaving my thirties behind this May!

posted by richat 25 March | 12:38

People used to say that I was born old. I was smoking and buying booze in liquor stores when I was 14, and was almost never carded, and it wasn't just because the cashiers were half-blind themselves and too lazy to care. It's because I was born old. Once I went to a bar with a woman in her 40s using an ID borrowed from a man in his 40s, and they did card me, and they fucking decided I must be in my 40s. I was 16. (My parents were at that bar, too - but that's another story.)

Funny thing is, now that I'm 46, people often think I'm younger than I am, even with the substantial silver streaks in my hair and beard. Some days I feel old, but mostly I don't really associate myself with any particular age or generation.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that true quality is timeless.

posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 25 March | 12:39

I'm not sure I get the question. I've felt old lately, in the sense of being out of it or that there are things I'm never going to get to do, but I've never had feelings that attach to particular numbers.

posted by JanetLand 25 March | 12:39

At this time in my life I feel a lot younger than I am. I honestly think it's due to the parents of the other kids at daycare. It's an expensive daycare. The other parents are all, with the exception of maybe one father, professionals who dress up for their jobs on Wall St, or in publishing or whatever, and when I pick up my kid, I'm usually wearing jeans and a hoodie. And my chuck taylors. I have sort of internalized the idea that I am younger than them all, which is in fact untrue, because I've taken my kid to playdates with a few of them, and some have talked about graduating college 5 or so years after me.

I still feel like I'm playing at being a grownup.

posted by gaspode 25 March | 12:46

I've felt 26 since I graduated from college and I will probably feel 26 until I have a kid.

posted by muddgirl 25 March | 12:51

I feel sixteen in my heart, but I was an old sixteen.

Up until this year I would have said thirtyish. My energy level has taken a nosedive this last few months. It's hard to tell how much that is because of major life changes (moving, new job, commuting), how much because of being out of shape, and how much might have a medical cause (I'm getting my thyroid checked out). Right now I feel my age. 40.

posted by Miko 25 March | 13:26

Miko, ask your doctor about testing for Vitamin D deficiency when you get the thyroid test, or, if the thyroid is negative.

If I didn't have a mirror I might feel younger. If I wasn't getting bad test results from my bloodwork, I might feel younger. I feel 40. I'm 41 and a half.

posted by rainbaby 25 March | 13:45

Miko: go have a mud fight. It helps!

posted by lonefrontranger 25 March | 14:04

I feel about 30. I suspect I'll always feel about 30 until I suddenly feel about 100. I'm 51.

posted by lordrunningclam 25 March | 14:22

I feel about 30, but I'm 48. I've felt this way ever since I was 30. Part of it, I think, is my conscious decision not to grow up, because that's how people get old. I'm sure a crashing reality check is in my future.

posted by dg 25 March | 14:44

I'm 52. I certainly don't feel any younger. A lot of the time, I feel like I'm about 200 or so. I'm just very, very tired. Worn out.

posted by Thorzdad 25 March | 15:04

34 is the number that popped into my head. Mentally, that's about right. Physically, I'm probably 60 or so.

When I was in my teens I'd be mistaken for someone in their 20s. Once I got into my 20s people starting thinking I was 10 or so years younger.

posted by deborah 25 March | 15:23

65-ish. Currently 51.

Of all my symptoms, I wish the docs could either remove my constant exhaustion or boost my motivation. We have pretty much determined the exhaustion is here to stay, so now I am doing some major research on boosting motivation. Unfortunately, this will probably mean reprogramming my way of thinking about many issues, and when things get complex, I get perplexed, and my advances vanish. Simplifying is an alien concept for a person who revels in chaos.

posted by Ardiril 25 March | 15:26

Thirtysomething.

posted by box 25 March | 15:43

I think I'm in my late twenties or early thirties. I mean I really think this, which is why when I look in the mirror in the mornings and see a 46 year old woman looking at me I often have this moment of surprise and shock. I also think I'm thin, which I'm not anymore, and that's always kind of a shock too. ;-) My mother told me when she was in her 80s that every time she glanced in a mirror it was a surprise, like, "Who is that old woman?" It's good to know it's not just me.

posted by mygothlaundry 25 March | 15:53

37.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 25 March | 16:00

Wow, sorry to depress the shit out of half of you.

Physically, I feel about my age (35). Mentally, I always feel about 23, not because I feel immature but because I feel like my life is perpetually just beginning. I don't mean that in a woo-woo spiritual, Think Positive! kind of way. More like everything's always changing and I've never quite "arrived." I've moved four times in the last five years, held three jobs, got married, and went to grad school (not necessarily in that order). So I'm always embarking on something and sometimes I wish I'd just Get There.

posted by desjardins 25 March | 16:06

I feel I should be about 35. I'm 50.

posted by essexjan 25 March | 17:41

Much younger than my passport says.

posted by gomichild 25 March | 18:15

I kind of suspect that I'll always be in my thirties in my head. Depending on the week, maybe early, maybe late, but always in my thirties. The last little while, I've definitely been feeling 31-32 tops.

My girls keep teasing me because I'm leaving my thirties behind this May!

My mother-in-law got stuck at 29, and she tried to jump ahead to 41 when her second oldest daughter turned 29. That lasted a few weeks to months, but she didn't like the feeling of that, so she's back to 29. Last year was my mother-in-law's 29th anniversary of her actual 29th birthday.

Personally, I'm somewhere stranded between my 20s and 30s. 20s makes me think of the college kids who are everywhere (thanks to the undergrad college and community college in the area), and 30s still sounds kind of old, though I'm already a few months into my 30th year. But sometimes I'll still be about 5 years old, running around like a goon, singing nonsense songs at the top of my lungs. Mostly the running, because I usually think about people who might hear me when I sing in such a way.

posted by filthy light thief 25 March | 18:47

Alternately 30 and 50 (I'm 43). Gravity leans towards 50, I'm afraid (I didn't know knees could sag).

In high school, when I did some volunteer work at a nursing home, I remember how, when patients were lifted from their wheelchairs/pee pads, their asses used to hang and flap. Something to look forward to, I guess.

posted by Pips 25 March | 19:06

I always think of myself as being around 27 which explains why I live like I have my whole life ahead of me. I have a lot of friends who are in the 27-35 range and feel on par with them. But I'm really 43. I get reminded of it when there's an old bald guy in the mirror looking back at me in the morning.

I also constantly get sunburned on my head since I keep forgetting I'm bald. Maybe I'm just an idiot.

Two weeks ago I went back to my apartment in college up in Isla Vista. Hadn't been there in 22 years. All the students in the neighborhood seemed so young. I was loving the reminiscing until I realized that I'm about the age of some of their parents and they're probably wondering "what's that old dude doing around here?"

But even if my appearance gives my true age away, I'll keep being in my late 20s until I'm wheeled into the old folks home. Sadly, my knees feel like they qualify for AARP already.

posted by birdherder 25 March | 20:09

About 26.

I'm 38 in real life.

posted by jason's_planet 25 March | 20:31

I'm not experienced enough for being 27, so maybe 22.

posted by casarkos 25 March | 21:40

Yeah, I don't feel nearly as old as I actually am. I feel like I'm in my late 20's/early 30's . . . just starting to figure out what it means to take responsibility for my life. I guess I'm at least a decade older than I really feel.

posted by treepour 26 March | 00:23

I'm 21, but I'd definitely put myself at early 30s. I feel old enough to know what I want from life, but not old enough to know how to get it.

posted by l33tpolicywonk 26 March | 22:59

25 March 2010