Is Age Just A Number?

“Happy Birthday to me!” Yes, today is my 31st Birthday….. 31….. younger me would have said I am now old.

I suppose in a way I am but I don’t really feel old and they do say that age is just a number, is that true though?

Many people in Africa don’t know how old they are, it is not customary to celebrate birthdays and members of the Masai Mara age on how often it rains. As much as I love birthdays, how nice would it be to not be constantly reminded of how old you are?

It doesn’t matter how old you are, people will always comment on age, “you’re too old to be doing that!” or “you’re too young to be using that!”. Think about how many situations those 2 sentences can be applied to. Truth be told though, who really cares? Do you honestly care if someone tells you you’re too old to be doing something you enjoy? If you do, then why?

I didn’t do the “partying” stage of my later teenage years, don’t get me wrong, I have done the “drinking 3 nights in a row” thing but I never done it when I was supposed to (when I was actually 18). I could do it now I suppose but I always feel “too old” when I do go out because everyone around me, obviously apart from my friends, is about 12 (well they’re not but anyone younger than me is “about 12″… again, another age related saying). It’s not just that though, I actually don’t enjoy it; I get quite bad anxiety and I don’t really know why. I don’t know if it’s because of previous bad experiences, because I’m actually not as confident as I like to make out or just because I generally don’t like people and drunk people are the worst kind of people. Or is it just, because I’m old? It can’t really be the latter though because I’ve not enjoyed it for a very long time. I worked in pubs from the age of 18 to 25 and I think when you do that you can go one of 2 ways. You either become a bit of a drunkard yourself or you don’t really drink at all because you can’t stand spending more time in pubs and bars than you have to!

My interests change like the wind and could be suitable for 8 year olds up to 90 year olds! One of my main interests is cars, modified and supercars in particular. I’ve had an interest in modified cars since I was about 13/14, mainly thanks to The Fast and The Furious films and then playing Need For Speed Underground on the Playstation. I’m now 31 and I drive a lowered car that I can’t take in to multi-storey car parks or get it over speed bumps. I can no longer shop in my local Tesco because they’ve recently put speed bumps in and I don’t want to risk ripping my exhaust off. I get some very strange looks when I park in parent and child spaces because the toddler is hidden by tinted windows. I don’t care though, I love it and I love the attention she gets at times. For my 30th birthday last year my other half bought me a 5 car Supercar track day, I can honestly say it was one of the greatest experiences of my life!

How happy do I look! When I’m driving, especially on my own, nothing matters. I just sing along to music and put my foot down. Driving just makes me feel young and driving amazing supercars at over 100 mph around a track made me scream and laugh like a child. I felt sorry for the instructors that I probably deafened.

On the other end of the scale, I enjoy crafts. I can knit, sew, cross stitch, make jewellery, the list goes on. I’ve been called old and sad because of this but I really don’t care. At the end of the day I actually have some skills that can be useful in the real world and at least I’ll have something to keep me occupied when I actually am old and can’t get about any more!

One thing to do with age that I am insistent on is I don’t want to look old. I’ve been using Nivea Q10 since I was about 24 and I truly believe this has helped to keep some lines at bay. I do also dye my hair as I have quite a few greys these days but I don’t do it that regularly and I suppose the fact I’m missing a large section out of the side probably helps hide them! I have a variety of creams and things to help keeping my skin looking fresh and I love playing with makeup but like most people these days, I will still use the Beauty Face filter on my phone! One thing I refuse to do is have fillers. Yes, I will try anything to stay looking young but no, I do not want my face injected with god knows what and end up with a frozen face by 35!

I’ve written all this and I still don’t know if age is “just a number”, I think it all depends on how you feel inside. I know I’m now in my 30’s, I’m a Mum to 2 children with real adult responsibilities and I’m currently more broken than my 80 year old Nan but in my heart and my head I’m ageless. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to have my birthday, I enjoy it, but I don’t need a number to define who I am and what I do.

Anyway, I’m going to go and stuff my face with Colin the Caterpillar cake like a 5 year old then probably have a G&T later like an adult.

Thanks for reading!