For older folks, do you still feel young for your age?

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If it applies of course.

I feel quite a bit younger than my age, but also well, not exactly a match for those
ages either, since they have super fast social skills and can run rings around me.

I feel like I should just accept this somehow, probably not worth worrying about.

Wondered what older folk's experiences were?

44, but feel like I'm in my 20s. Nobody my age has the same interests (for that matter, nobody in my area of any age does either).

I don’t feel like I’ve changed much since I was 15. Well, I’m a bit more wary about people, but I have many of the same opinions, interests, and mannerisms as I did when I was young.

I have changed a lot since being a teenager.

I didn't take seriously, school, as a child and a teenager, though I did reasonably well anyway in my GCSE's (the UK's version of high school qualifications that one leaves with).

I then did A-levels, and went to university later than the standard age, graduating in 2015, and then obtained a postgraduate certificate in 2021.

Book nerdiness is something I have grown into. As a child and as a teenager, even though I had the intelligence to do okay in exams, even without much revision - I didn't really have the attention span to properly study, due to adhd (which I was later diagnosed with as an adult in my late twenties).

I read a lot more now as a 30 something year old than I have ever done previously.

My social skills have also improved somewhat as I have learned to better socially mask with age.

In my twenties, I had more conservative opinions versus what I have had for the past 5 or 6 years. I feel that I have become more empathetic and understanding of people, as I have gotten older.

I'm the opposite. I call myself "the oldest 19-year-old in the world".
I just can't really relate as well with people in my generation. I prefer talking to people my parents' or grandparents' age.

I was very young for my age until my 50s. Then I became very decrepid.

For me, it's an odd combination of knowing that, yes, I am old but feeling like I am less mature than people significantly younger than me. Socially, I was minimally functional in my teens and early twenties. So, I have developed quite a bit since then but I still feel like I'm "stuck" at that age. My social abilities seem to develop incredibly slowly, putting me WAY behind my peers.

I feel kind of 25 but with a few more relatively minor physical aches and pains and a bit less physical stamina. Singing voice still no worse except that I can't scream my head off for hours like I used to, or even just sing my highest notes in a muscular kind of way for more than a few minutes without a brief rest.

Still mentally alert, less feebleminded and confused than ever, better able to express myself clearly and precisely, probably less lethargic in temperament, no less open to change, no less annoyed by certain modern things (though more of them have sprung up of course). I think I'm wiser, though I still have a long way to go there.

I only really feel old when I look in a mirror, and even then I usually get the feeling that I'm still dodging the worst of it. And I'm generally uncomfortably aware of the fact of my age - so if I get a physical ailment I start worrying it's cancer or some other scary milestone on my way to extinction, and I often get a feeling that I'm running out of time.

Mentally, I've never fit in at any age. I'm definitely not as "mature" as other people my age, but thats always been true. (I still dont feel like an adult.) Physically, I'm told I look about 10 years younger, but that's always been true as well. Lately, do worry a bit about what would happen if I developed some age-related health problems, though I mostly feel fine so far.

In many, many ways I feel young for my age. I can't even say that I'd apply those things to being me neurodiverse, or at least not all of them. It's a heck of a lot more complicated than that. It's a very long story, but to put it simply I was in a trauma "bubble"/freeze for many, many years following high school that I only just snapped out of over the past few years.

This halted my maturation in many ways. It's a long story, as I said. I'm only just now beginning to learn how to "adult".

However, I think some things like my interest in "childish" things and foods/snacks is unrelated and could be related to being neurodiverse or something else. (my interest in childish foods to this day is likely related to my sensory issues with eating and thus sticking to things I've always known I can eat, even if that means it looks like I'm shopping for an 8 year old when I go grocery shopping lol)

At the end of the day, I don't really know how much my immature traits are related to what.

I still have a lot of flexibility. Waistline is 24-1/2 inches, not much different than when I was twenty pounds lighter.

So yes, I still feel young for my age.

I definitely feel younger than my age. If I didn't know my age and didn't remember, and I didn't have mirrors or could see my physical self, and I had to guess how old I am, I would probably guess I was 20 years younger. Maybe even younger than that. Other than being calmer and more accepting, and less prone to being angry or annoyed, I am the same person I was 40 years ago, for the most part.

I think part of it may be that I don't have children and haven't had many jobs or responsibilities, but I think it's more fundamental than that. I like the same things and have pretty much the same interests and concerns that I did when I was younger, and I just feel essentially the same.

I've spent my early 20s feeling like 8-12. Slowly abd painfully edging at age 16 at most.

Maybe it's the inner child, maybe it's just my developmental age, maybe it's just my internal expressions.

There are really rare times that I feel like my age.
Like I'm a fully grown and competent adult.
That's usually when I woke one to a day when I have a working executive function that made everything really, really easy.


Then... My hormones changed by some pills, it affects my internal perception and my thought processes...
Honestly, I feel ageless at the moment. I'm still relearning. It's only been a month for me since the change.

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I've always felt like ME.

The life I was living changed as I got older. I've learned (and forgotten) things as I got older. The people and things around me got older. My activities evolved over time.

And, darn if some parts of my body are not showing age, wear, and tear.

But I've always felt like ME. A point in time.