Age – It’s a Funny Thing…

Being new to blogging, I’m trying to learn as much as I can about the WordPress community and other bloggers. This morning I was absentmindedly scrolling through the ‘Discover’ section while also half paying attention to the Food Network I had on in the background.

Side bar.

Weekend mornings are my favorite time to watch Food Network. It the only time they actually show any gosh dang cooking programs anymore. I have watched just a completely unnecessary amount of Chopped and Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives episodes.

I live for the weekends when I can actually watch episodes of The Barefoot Contessa, The Kitchen,  Giada at Home, Pioneer Woman….any show, really, that isn’t a competition or restaurant review.

There are very few things I enjoy as much as waking up in the mornings (without the help of an alarm set for 4:30am like on weekdays), making a cup of coffee, and spending some quality time in with Ina Garten and her immaculate kitchen.

Don’t judge me. I’m normal. I swear.

End side bar.

Anyways. While on ‘Discover’ I found the daily writing prompt posted by The Daily Post. What a great idea! I browsed through some blogs from yesterday’s prompt (‘sparkle’) and loved how varied the responses were. Some were stories, some were life musings, some poems, photographs, quotes, drawings, anything one could think of.

Then I saw today’s prompt: Age

Considering that I started my very first blog by saying I was getting ready to turn 25 this month, this prompt felt very appropriate.

I think about age a lot. Probably more than I should. But how else am I supposed to spend my time when not ranting about how Food Network doesn’t play enough cooking shows?

Age is funny. I remember when I was younger, aging didn’t seem like a real thing. When I was six. I thought teenagers had always been teenagers. Adults had always been adults. I was just a little kid. Even though people always told me I was growing up so fast and that I would be a teenager before I knew it – it didn’t seem real. It felt like it would never actually happen.

Then you turn 25 and you wonder how you went from the six year old to where you are now.

Aging is often viewed as a transition. One continuous flow through life. But it doesn’t actually feel that way. It feels like many, separate stages. Separate lives even. I know I was a little kid once. But it’s hard to imagine myself, now, being a little kid twenty years ago. I remember things from my childhood. But it’s like remembering a completely separate life. Same goes for high school. College isn’t too far in the past yet. I can still remember myself in college. But I imagine in five or ten years that will feel like a different life as well.

I’m convinced that people live multiple, different lives within one’s entire lifespan.

A person’s age may be an indication of how many years someone has been on this earth. But to me it seems more like an marker. Like the titles of chapters in a book. Or the names of songs on an album.

It simply shows which of your many lives you are currently in.

Now excuse me while I get back to Ina Garten and her essential holiday dinner tips….