O so Ooooold!

So my earlier post brings me to this next post. Yes I belong to that long gone era. I'm old... & getting older.
So there are several stages in getting old and its slowly unravelling. If Im lucky to be alive long enough, I may some day be able to jot down all the stages - but for now I can cover the following stages that I have experienced.

1. The 'aunty' stage: I know I will always be a child at heart. I may not show it to all...  or at all times to even the people who know the child in me, but I just feel like a child trapped in an old person's body! So with that mindset especially, when some random person called me 'Aunty' for the first time - it hit hard! After my experience I was able to identify this pain as it occurred in other women as well. When you have always been referred to as the 'little one' or at max a didi or chechi, 'aunty' can be quite shocking. But this stage almost always happens only to women and almost always keeps the person in denial about their increasing age.

2. The first grey: I remember my mom pointing out that I had greys and I did not believe her. I blamed her eyesight. So she proved her point by plucking it out for me and handing me the evidence. I broke down. The next couple of years were spent by my parents trying to find me solutions for 'premature greying'... knowing fully well that it wasn't premature. This continued till the day dad suggested I use this oil that would help premature greys and I responded 'yeah - it may help premature greys; not mine'. He laughed his heart out. And that was the end of that!
So the 2nd stage definitely helps in breaking the denial and brings in the acceptance phase. It was especially hard on me because my hair was the only part of me that I truly loved - and given how low my self esteem & self acceptance was, it was quite a hard hit.

3. The kids in office: So this was visible for many years in office. The crowd around me keeps getting younger. I know they are younger but how much younger … I try and not focus on it. So this third stage hit me like a bomb today. A guy in my team was talking to me and he asked me where I stay, if I own the place and how long I've been there. So I told him that I have been staying there for close to 15  years. He had an expression of shock on his face. He then asked me which years I did my graduation .. & when I answered him, he says 'O! I was in school at that time'! So much for making my day! Welcome to stage 3!