‘What age did you realise you weren’t young anymore?’ – 17 wake up calls that the years are flying by

Life, as they say, is short. One moment you’re in school, the next your hair’s greying and you’re wondering how on earth you got this old.

This can come as a surprise, because even though getting older happens gradually, it tends to hit you all at once. To find out when the realisation set in for people, u/MutedOrbit1800 put the following question to r/AskReddit:

‘What age did you realise you weren’t young anymore?’

Here are the top replies from chopped uncs who are too old to know what that even means…

1.

’36. I ordered a shirt from one of my favorite metalcore bands, Vianova. It was a sriracha parody and in the corner it said “EXTRA HOT METAL KIDS!”

‘When I got it and put it on for the first time I took a good look at myself in the mirror and thought “You know, I think I may be too old to be an extra hot metal kid.”’
-Jelly-Unhappy

2.

‘Literally on Friday a few days ago, when I was closing at work and one of the teenagers put on Friday by Rebecca black. I told them I was 11 when that song came out and they both stared at me with their jaws dropped.’
-oh-lawd-hes-coming

3.

‘When I noticed I was older than my doctors’
-Takarma4

4.

‘I’m a HS teacher and when I first started everyone made a big deal about how young I looked. For years on picture day I had to say I was a teacher, not a student.

‘Then one year when I was like 27 or 28, I was giving them my slip for photos and I casually said, “I’m faculty” and the guy said “no shit” under his breath.’
-ElieMay

5.

‘My theory is you age mid-decade. This is to reduce the trauma of turning 30, 40 etc. When you turn 30 everyone says you are still young.

‘What they don’t say is somewhere between 35 and 38 you suddenly become middle aged: you suddenly think society is changing too quickly, think more about retirement than school, and give up plucking your ear hair.’
-KebabKid88

6.

‘When people started to call me sir in public. I was about 31/32’
-ShenKiStrike

7.

‘When people in their early 20s started to look like children to me.’
-zak55

8.

’55 now and what are you trying to insinuate?’
-BaconMonkey0

9.

’38. Some teens were playing around on the bus shoving each other. One of them almost knocked into me & another said “stop playing around, you almost hit that lady!” LADY?!!!! I’m just a girl :(‘
-brownsugarpopcorn