I didn't anticipate compounding disabilities. Knowing that I'll never achieve my travel goals bums me out.

I don't have to stop moving. I just have to move slower and take more breaks.

I beliefe this feeling of innocence is a retrospective feeling when you get older and think back to your childhood and youth. I think these things felt way more serious when you actually were at that age since you didn't have much to compare it with.

I have no idea where all this extra fat on my stomach came from

It is hard seeing your parents holding eggs at any age

I’m watching my mother slowly dying of cancer. Can’t describe it

Or when your parents and their siblings pass and you realize that you are now the oldest generation in the family tree.

We decided as a family with the doctors, but ultimately, I had to be the one to explain to nursing home staff in no uncertain terms that no further life supporting efforts were to be made for my mother. I knew that's what she wanted, and I hope someone will do that for me once it's time. Still, I felt like the angel of death. It changes you.

Seeing your parents not getting older is tough too.

Im 58 and have cancer and copd, I live with my parents with my two kids 10 and 12. My folks are 80. It's very surreal, like we are just waiting to see who goes first.I have made arrangement for my kids but thats what bothers me most. They have never lost someone close, felt that grief. And I get to be the one to inflict that on them. It's messing me up man. Edit: My ex shoots the mexican marching powder so she is not an option

Continued: her condo, belongings and finances have all been sold or liquidated. She is in a hell hole Nursing Home currently in Hospice with Dementia and numerous serious health conditions. I have no input on anything. I have not recovered from what I have been and continue to be put through and doubt I ever will. At age 82, my mother told me she didn't do the required legal documents because she always planned on killing herself at age 80 and they wouldn't be necessary because I'm an only child and everything would go to me. NO One should have to go through what I have. You have been informed and warned, please take heed! It is my hope that my mother dies peacefully and soon because she wanted none of this when well but it is the result of her own actions, and inactions thereof.

PLEASE, if you live in the US, make sure your parents, other loved ones and You have the necessary documents completed and properly executed for when disability and death come, Health Care Power of Attorney, Will, Trust (the best) etc., etc. The forms are available on the Internet and state specific, most only require witnesses and a Notary. My mother refused numerous times over the years to complete the necessary documents,despite my trying different approaches, due to several serious mental illnesses. The short of the long, she is now in Hospice with numerous severe medical conditions and dementia. No documents aforementioned? The State steps in and takes control of Everything. The State is her Financial and Health Care Guardian. It costs thousands of dollars to try and fight this and often is not successful. I was permitted brief access to her condo to obtain family photos. Everything has been sold. I was treated as a degenerate and a criminal. I still have not recovered.

I nearly died when I was a kid, so this one doesn't really worry me. Every day of my free life is a gift.

Yeah, I'm pretty much in pain every single day.

I tripped/fell on Hollywood Blvd on a busy Fri night. People literally stepped over me. Not 1 person offered help. #invisible

My biggest regret is probably not asking my father more questions, and learning more from him. There would always be time for that . . . and then suddenly it was too late.

True. Years seemed eternal back when I was a kid, but nowadays they zoom by like an instant. Wasn't there a pandemic yesterday?

I have already buried a brother. It hurts less and less, but the emptiness never goes away

Speak for yourself. I have mastered the art of turning to the other side and falling right back to sleep... even did it after an earthquake once ;)

70? One bad cold/coughing fit cost me my singing long before 70

This is a very important step towards happiness late in life. Just accept things as "The New Normal".

Think of it as increasing your relationship with gravity.

Children aren't an insurance for care in old age

I'm a young person trapped in an old person costume.

Right there! When my youngest moved out, for about six months I was really depressed. Didn't know what to do with myself. For over 20 years, my whole existence had been raising my children, making sure they had what they needed, etc etc, etc. When they were grown up and gone, and felt like "Now what?" I felt that all that was left was to grow old and die. I got over it though. I got some hobbies.

There's one great potential in being older that is not to be underestimated: the ability to guide the young. I often think of advice to the young like planting seeds. A lot of times, young people have no idea what I'm talking about. But someday, when experience catches up with them, they will. Hopefully it will be BEFORE they need the advice, and not after.

One word: hobbies. Get some hobbies and share with other people. Learn to knit. Learn sign language. Take a cooking class.

If I take sufficient meds to manage my pain, I can't stay awake more than a couple hours. If I lower the meds to stay awake, I'm in severe pain the whole time and still accomplish nothing. And it al happened soooo fast!

Ain't that the truth!

I used to tell younger adults "YOUR PUBES TURN GREY!", cause no one had told me, they were my first grey hairs, and I was mildly traumatized by having a 'old' bush!

There can be multiple instances of "good old days," I think. For me, it could be the summers in my grandma's neighborhood when I spent whole days outside, just doing all sorts of mischief. But it could also be my college years when we had so much fun, went for road trips/picnics, stayed up all night, supposedly to study, but goofing off instead, etc. Years from now, I may even look upon today as some sort of "good old days."

Feel like this could be said just as well about old people

This should be rated higher. I think this is very positive.

My life experiences are a running gag. I often joke that today I'm going to talk about an important event from my childhood and the lesson I learned. However, never think you have nothing to contribute. You do. Let them roll their eyes. Someday they'll understand.

Here's my take: the hardest rut to break out of is the mental rut, the routine, the habit, the fear of taking a chance. Absolutely, keep your job as long as you can, but never be afraid to retrain, take night classes, change careers. It's really never too late.

You can make bad decisions that will follow you for a long time at any age.