As we all get older, things change without us even realizing it, like, for example, what we find fun.
I had to get something at Home Depot the other day, and I noticed how pumped I was to go there, which definitely wasn't the case a few years ago.
But so many other unexpected things change, too. Over on the Ask Reddit subreddit, redditor u/whitebeardasmr posed the question, "What is a sign you’re getting older that you didn’t see coming?" And people had some pretty interesting, and suuuper relatable responses. Here are just a few:
1. "Realizing that every birthday after 21 just isn’t that exciting anymore."
2. "Growing out of certain people. I've had to cut some friends out of my life because I’ve grown as a person, done heaps of therapy, and worked on myself, while they haven’t. No shade — we’re all on our own journey, but having to leave people behind because they don’t fit into my current life definitely took me by surprise."
3. "I don’t want anything for Christmas."
"I always get the 'you're so hard to shop for.' And I try to explain that I don't want anything! If I have to find space for it, I don't want it."
4. "I have to turn the music down while driving so I can see better."
5. "Becoming clumsy. It's weird. In my family, everyone has something go awry when they hit their 30s: hair loss, going gray, memory starts slipping, etc. My hair hasn't changed, and my memory is as sharp as ever, but damn me, if I haven’t become an absolute klutz, walking into corners, tripping, dropping things, spontaneously losing my balance, etc."
6. "I get excited by new grocery store flyers."
7. "I can't handle sweets like I used to. I tried out some candies recently and got a headache."
8. "I look forward to working on jigsaw puzzles with my husband."
9. "All of a sudden, I'm older than everyone at work, including my manager and supervisor."
10. "When you rewatch a TV show and relate more to the parents than the kids."
11. "The involuntary get-up grunt."
12. "Now, 10:30 at night feels so late, when it used to be that's when things were just getting started for the night."
13. "For quite some time now, I've been getting annoyed by teenagers basically just talking to each other in public. To me, they just exude this natural insolence."
14. "Feeling nostalgia from things from my childhood. It's all so oddly comforting. I know people talk about nostalgia, but I never understood how it actually felt, and then, suddenly I did."
15. "Stupid injuries. I opened the gate wrong and tore my rotator cuff, I carried some five-gallon buckets of dirt and got sciatica, and I transplanted a bush and strained my back. I have a healthy lifestyle, and I'm used to being active, but suddenly, my body can't deal."
16. "I constantly have to turn the volume down on the TV or radio (or tell the person speaking to me to use their indoor voice) because everything is too loud."
"I'm so much more sensitive to sound (and light, and flavors, and on and on)."
17. "Realizing that you're typically older than the cast of TV shows."
18. "Asking 'what did I come in here for?'"
19. "I have to Google or urbandictionary.com certain words to navigate some conversations with younger co-workers."
20. "I get constant random pains but never the same pain consistently."
—anon
21. And finally, "Buying household stuff makes me happy. For instance, when the fridge broke, I was so looking forward to the delivery of the new one that I couldn't speak of anything else."
"As a child, it was toys, as a teen and young adult, it was clothes, and now, it's furniture and home accessories. I wonder what’s next…"
