{"id":25169,"date":"2024-03-06T09:00:32","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T17:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=25169"},"modified":"2024-02-29T13:31:24","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T21:31:24","slug":"not-the-last-word-aging-difficulties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2024\/03\/06\/not-the-last-word-aging-difficulties\/","title":{"rendered":"Not the Last Word<\/em>: Aging difficulties"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve mentioned before that I\u2019m one of those late-blooming students that decided to go back to school in their 30s. I\u2019d previously had a rather unpredictable and gregarious lifestyle through much of my life, changing jobs and careers, dabbling (or rather absorbing myself) in activities that were not healthy to my body or spirit.<\/p>\n

The decision to come back to school was the first decision I had ever made that truly would enrich my life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Not the Last Word<\/em> is a column appearing in every issue of Nexus<\/em> (photo by Emily Welch\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A drawback to this is that I\u2019m often, although not always, older than the other students in the class, and, of course, with every semester I become more aware of it. I love learning, and I try not to let it get to me that I\u2019ve started so much later in life than most of my colleagues. It\u2019s not always easy, though, when surrounded by so many fresh minds and faces. I sit next to these students with their rosy, flushed, supple skin, and their ever-changing hip dialogues, and I feel terribly slow, and, yes, old. When I try to keep up with the way they interact, I often feel even older.<\/p>\n

We live in a society that is unkind to women getting older. I felt in my 20s that I wouldn\u2019t get older; it felt completely out of reach. But middle age (aaaaagh) has descended on me faster than a rabbit on uppers. I am now suddenly in a world where Facebook is sending me endless advertisements for youth-inducing miracle creams and serums, along with articles about some essential plant products that will make me look and feel 19 again. I see how much shame women receive when they age, but it seems the opposite for men, who, when they age,\u00a0 <\/span>become sexy, handsome, distinguished, and craggy, and have Clooney-obsessed young Smurfettes falling at their feet. Women, once they age, seem to disappear, and that\u2019s the best-case scenario. Others, such as female celebrities, are shamed and ridiculed for having their bodies go through their natural processes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to face reality about the way my body is changing, yet my mind feels more agile than it\u2019s ever been. I seem to gain curiosity and energy to learn with every new line on my face.<\/p>\n

I would love to say that I refuse to let social media influence my feelings, but I\u2019m still human and, therefore, sensitive. I can, however, refuse to let my own mind slow down, and, hopefully, with every passing year, time on Earth will be appreciated, rather than ridiculed, in women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve mentioned before that I\u2019m one of those late-blooming students that decided to go back to school in their 30s. I\u2019d previously had a rather unpredictable and gregarious lifestyle through much of my life, changing jobs and careers, dabbling (or rather absorbing myself) in activities that were not healthy to my body or spirit. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,307],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-march-6-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25170,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25169\/revisions\/25170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}