Ditto along the way.
I feel like the best years of my life (which of course, in retrospect, I'm gauging on my physical body), were between the ages of 30/31 - up until 38. I was always told I look like I'm in my 20's, and I tend to have younger friends,... I'm married, no children, so when the friends I had started getting married and having kids in their 20's, they sought out their own kind and I started drifting towards more like-minded people too, who happen to be younger.
I married a man 10 years my junior, and that may play a certain role.
I swear when I turned 39 it was as if everything I've ever read about "when a woman turns 40" just happened over night! I swear! It was as if I woke up and blam! I aged. Just like that. Sudden! This past year I think I've physically aged more than I have in the past 10 years combined.
I turn 40 in a few weeks. So some of this might be imaginary, in my head, over-amplified, mid-life blah blah blah,.... and me making unfair comparisons by having a Husband 10 years younger.
But I must also say this: I make less money now than I have EVER made in my life, (maybe that adds to the whole "looking back on your life" and feeling like you don't have anything to show for it)... so I'm feeling my mistakes big time.
However,...I Love My Husband soooo much, and I'm so incredibly happy, I don't miss having more friends "my own age" too often (just sometimes), I have more muscle and less fat on my body than I did in my 20's, my periods are shorter (but more violent), and I feel more centered and grounded than I ever have.
I have a number of chronic health issues I contend with, and I think that can make an impact. But I still manage to work through them.
The biggest thing to my feeling old(er) now has less to do with my body, less to do with my injuries, my creaks, my bones, my limps, my back, my chronic pain, my energy, my love of life, how I feel, or even my bunions! It seems almost entirely related to what's above the neck!
I see my hair thinning and falling out. I am having dental problems (feeling like the "apple faced lady" if you know what I mean), ... and while I don't mind the wrinkles even a little bit, what I do hate is the way my face is sagging.
What makes me "feel old" is not really how I FEEL but it's how my face looks! It's the face I see in the mirror -- and that face does not reflect the "real me" that I am, or that I feel inside of my very being!
It's that lack of balance that bugs me. Inside feels pretty good despite physical problems, my relationship rocks, I absolutely love my work, I feel a new appreciation (big emphasis there) for life,.... but then I look in the mirror and right or wrong, efficient or not, it feels like that reflection and the incongruency truly and deeply affects those feelings.
If I could stuff those associations down or learn to grow up (not grow old) -- I'm sure I'd be fine. (Either that or get an overhaul!) The age "number" matters little to me in and of itself, but I sure would be a lot happier if the face matched the inside!
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Life isn't what happens to you -- it's how you react to it! | 
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