I'm old -- 79 years old in less than a week and want to talk about what it's like to get/be old. I'll start with my typical old-person daily routines. First of all, it's not nearly as bad as you younger people think it will be. In fact, the only really bad part is that I can see the end of my life a lot more clearly than I did when I was younger. The other pretty bad part I'll cover in depth later on, but it's the sad fact that younger people don't "see" older people. Oh, and I'm always stunned when I look in a mirror and see an old person staring back at me!
For now, here's what a typical day is like for me. I wake up early because I usually go to bed early, have breakfast while I watch a couple of youtube videos that interest me. Then most days I take a walk, about a mile and a half usually, unless it's horribly windy. I can't bear the wind!! I live in a beautiful rural area where walking trails are in every direction, so it's very enjoyable. I always take my also-senior dog Ruby with me, too.
Later, I do gardening (I have a great smallish veggie garden just outside my door). I also feed both hummingbirds and a large variety of seed-eating birds every day. My flower garden in front of my house also needs taking care of, too, so I spend a lot of time with it.
The rest of the day, I work. I am passionate about my ceramic artwork, which I've done now for around 30 years. I continue to explore new ideas and to learn something new nearly everyday, whether it be a better way to build a piece or some entirely new subject. Lately, I've been creating some sculpture of both my granddaughter's or my own doodles. They're so much fun! I don't know yet if they'll sell. If not, I'll keep them for myself.
I'm more fortunate than many old people in that I live next door to my daughter and her family, so I do have interactions with them all day long, until around 4 in the afternoon. It works out great. Having been a loner for all my life, I don't feel the need to have any other friends. I had a friend for several years, but we have drifted apart, and that's okay with me. There are times when I'm lonely, I admit, but I stay so busy that I don't think about it very much at all. I feel that my life is quite full.
One more thing that I do and have done for many years is I spend part of every day keeping up my French language skills. I was fortunate enough back when I was in my forties to be able to live and go to graduate school in France for about a year and a half, so I managed to learn a lot of French then. I spoke no French when I arrived but learned very quickly how to speak well enough to get by quite well. Also, I did come home from my lab at the university every day and study French language books, which helped a lot. Anyway, since that time, I've only been back to France once, around 9 years ago, which was great. But now, I continue to study, read French news articles, watch endlessly videos in French (by French people for French people) French novels, ((I'm currently reading the seemingly endless A la Recherche du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust, etc. It is literally the longest book ever written -- look it up!)
I had intended to go to France this autumn, but this being 2026, but I don't think I'm going to be able to. Glad I wisely hesitated on making reservations this spring. I don't know anyone who speaks French here in my small isolated town, so it's just something I pursue because I love it. And you never know.
I guess what I'm saying above is that just because you get old doesn't mean that your life has to be smaller; it doesn't at all.
