Lifes' milestones change after age 25

Despite the fact that I hate aging, I love to write about getting older; I don’t know why.

It may be because it’s a topic that we can all eventually relate to, or because that’s how I measure my life.

Life seems to be a series of milestones that one reaches; they seem to become fewer and far between after college.

There are all of the usual milestones — graduating from grade school, getting a driver’s license, graduating from high school and college, turning 21, getting that first job, getting married and having children.

For me, these milestones changed after the age of 25 when my insurance premium went down. Now, rather than wishing time would speed up when I could wait to get my license or turn 21, I am now wishing time would slow down.

Of course, there are still those milestone birthdays — turning 30, turning 40, turning 50... Whopee!

The latter I am not looking forward to at all; 40 was bad enough. That’s the official “over the hill” age. It says so on the black balloons and paper plates at the party stores.

Yes, I’ve noticed other milestones at this juncture in my life for myself and friends and family members who are close to my age — and they aren't exactly the ones you look forward to.

When we get together now, we seem to talk about our latest aches and pains.

It is hard to believe, but I do prefer a night on the couch over a night on the town most of the time.

My musical taste has changed as well. On a recent trip, my boyfriend and I listened to ’70s on 7 on Sirius radio.

It seems once we hit a certain age, we are stuck in a sort of time warp, taking with them those things that remind them of their childhood and fond memories.

Since I grew up in the ’70s, it makes perfect sense that the songs from that decade evoke many happy memories for me.

And because one is stuck in that time warp — the era he or she grows up in — they are out of touch with what’s popular now.

A friend of mine and I discussed how now when we read People magazine, we don’t know who half of the young singers and stars are.

Wow! Now I know how my grandparents felt when I tried to talk to them about the music I loved when I was a teenager.

While I try to take aging in stride and laugh about many aspects of it, some parts are sad.

My cousin, who is only in her 30s, has arthritis so bad that her knee has swollen to the size of a melon and she limps when she walks. She has three children and the youngest is 1. I don’t know how she keeps up. She obviously has help from her husband and teenage daughter.

My aunt, who is in her 50s, has tendonitis in her elbow, and most recently, in her foot. She has a job in which she has to stand all day. We recently talked about how we rely on our bodies for work and how scary it is to have medical problems.

And I recently learned that I have the beginnings of arthritis in my hip area. The dull pain has been there for about four months.

The upside of aging is that one has more experiences, thus more wisdom, hopefully, under their belt.

I really do believe that life is a never-ending lesson and adventure with something new and exciting around the corner. I just hope I am able to get there.

Jeanette Kendall is executive editor at TimesNewspapers.