Tuesday, February 09, 2010

On aging

I turned 25 last Friday. For the first time in several years, I got to spend my birthday with family. BJ and I headed up to Alton where I got to relax and laugh with my in-laws while eating homemade red velvet cake. It was lovely.

Twenty-five is a kind of big one. It's the halfway point to fifty and an official quarter century.

I noticed the other day that my hands are aging. Really, it's my thumbs. My thumbs are getting wrinkly.

And around my eyes are the slightest hint at coming wrinkles. I've started applying extra moisturizer in that area every morning.

I really don't mind aging. To me, it is exciting watching how the story is unfolding, but there is this one thing that keeps nagging me. You see, my Grandma Pierce and Aunt Doe (women who I happen to have entirely too much in common with) were beautiful 20-, 30-, 40-, all the way to 60- somethings. But around seventy, they became funny looking. It isn't just that wrinkles and gray hair are waiting for me. Everyone has to face that. It is the abnormally large nose, progressively frizzier hair, and stooped posture that gives the allusion of overly long arms that I'm dreading. There's at least a 50% chance that 50 or so years from now, I'm going to be funny looking. Pierce woman don't age into dignified, Helen Mirren-esque ladies. We age into caricatures with over-exaggerated features.

But that is enough of that. Thank you everyone for the birthday cards and Facebook messages. You made it a very special day!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was wonderful having you there to share your birthday. We are so blessed to have you in our family. Start taking some extra calcium with your vitamins. That funny stooped look may be from osteoperosis. And don't worry too much about it, you obviously loved your "aging ladies" with their unique physique.
Love you.
Mom G.

Anonymous said...

Kalyn, you are so funny. I am laughing so hard. Only you could come up with this. Keep that wonderful heart and you will always be beautiful and loved -just like Grandma Pierce and Aunt Doe.

Mrs. Gray said...

Haha! I just read an article in Real Simple about what happens with your hormones (and therefore your body) from your 20's to your 50's and I kind of started to freak out a little. As long as we have good friends and family though, we can still be happy despite being saggy and wrinkly, right?!

Sorry I missed wishing you happy birthday - it's nothing personal; I've missed everyone's! I'm glad you had a good one and I hope you can come back to Texas soon!