I know we all feel this way eventually, but I'm starting to feel this way and I'm only 21. It's all going by so quickly, I mean, only 7 years ago I was a freshman in high school. Damn, a freshman.

The biggest thing I'm scared about is that when I'm older I just won't be able to do the things I can do right now. I'm a scholarship athlete, but I'm scared that when I'm 35 I'll lose it all, the the ability to do things like I can right now. I'm scared of losing the youth in my face and the way I look. And, that when I'm older, I'll be like those weird old guys that told me to stop messing around that I hated when I was younger.

How do you deal with such fears? What do I think about? I seriously need to stop, but it makes me concerned and worried all the time.

:facepalm:

Live your life like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_LaLanne so that when you are 70 you can still "handcuffed, shackled, and fighting strong winds and currents, towed 70 rowboats, one with several guests, from the Queen’s Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary, 1 mile". :intergalactic:

Being that I was raised (or rather, being that I raised myself) on fantasy literature and the internet, it seems that at 20 I've already passed my adventure-having, live-living prime. Missing out on 90% of what I wanted to do and what is average teenage behavior doesn't help.

How I deal? I don't. I try not to think about it.

In a more positive (and decidedly less emo) vein, while you will eventually get old and loose some of what you have now, you'll gain plenty of other things. Who knows how awesome your life will be at 35? Nothing says that you have to grow up to be old and boring if you don't want to.

Pfft, I can't wait until I'm that old codger on my porch yelling at young whippersnappers and talking to myself about how when I was young kids were more respectful of their elders.

Look at it this way:

You got another 50-60 years to live (maybe more if you play your cards right)

Makes that puny 7 years talk look insignificant doesn't it?

"Don't get old" -a random 85 year old at a nursing home.

Life is what you make of it.

And remember, one is never too old to have a happy childhood.

Freaking out already at 21? You have a long way ahead of you!

You won't be old at 35. I'm 36 and while there's definitely mental and physical differences between 36 and 21, it's not significant. Look at Daniel Tosh. He's 35 but pretty youthful.

I worked with a woman who was 40 but you'd swear she was in her 20s. She was an 80s version of someone in her 20s but still

By the time we are 50, even 50 won't be all that old, and in a few decades we will have senior citizen homes full of old geezers demanding the latest broadband and playing video games. It's gonna be weird.

Well, I think you're good to go. They say "growing old ain't for wimps." So reading your post, I can see you'll stay young for a looooong time.

thats what is happening to my brother's friends. One of them told me that when he was 14, he couldn't wait until they got their permit. When he got their permit, he could wait to get their licence. When he was 17 he couldn't wait until he turned 18 so he could buy tobacco, and when he turned 18 he couldn't wait until he was 1 so he could drink legally. Now that he is 21, there isn't anything he is looking forward to since he isn't a family man. It may be that you ran out of things to look forward to?? So try to set something to look forward to in the far future? :shrug:

sorry but I serioulsy doubt any one can reassure you about that perticular fear since its unavoidable.

I′m someone who is rather frightened by how short a time we get, yes I'm only 18 but I feel like I've done and experienced less than 1% of what I'd liked to have done and experienced. But the realization that there is less than a 1% chance of a planet such as ours being in the ideal conditions for life, and that there is probably less than a 1% chance for such a planet to develop life with as intelligent beings as ours, and that there is probably another less than 1% chance for every single one of my ancestors being enough of a success as to all get to breed, and that there is another less than 1% chance that it would happen at the right time and then another less than 1% chance of my ancestors being human rather than let's just say snails, and don′t get me started on the competition that is formed during those intimate moments (another less than 1%), and then another low percentage albeit a bit higher that I would be born in a place with as much luxury as there is where I′m at and complaining about having little time seems silly when you think about just how darn lucky you were just to get to exist in the first place.

Of course some of us would look at those who do end up getting to experience most everything they wish to experience in their lifetime with a little envy, but I don't even think those that seem to have everything really get all they would wish for during their lifetime.

I think that when the time comes for me to go (which I do hope is at least 82 or more years from now) I will go content with the thought that I had enjoyable moments and an experience that requires a lot of luck to get, even if it seems miniscule when we look at the other 7 billion who got the same thing.

I'm sure most people have a fear of dying, which is a good thing, just don't go making up stories or following others' to prevent yourself from being afraid of the impending reality. People can go anytime, and surely you don't know when your time is up. Enjoy the gift of being alive, try to make the best of it, as living in fear of something that inevitably happens to all of us won't accomplish much.

Ok, I have to be serious here. I'm old enough that I could make it another six minutes or another six years or another 20 years. But I if I dwelled on that I would be a miserable old woman nobody would want to be around. Life isn't about fearing it, it's about living it. None of us no matter our age knows how many days or weeks or months or years they have left but it is a fact that if you take care of yourself you will live a more active and productive life. I've not been a shining example of taking care of myself but I do try to stay as active as I can. For my age I do ok but of course I wish I could still do what I could when I was 21.

I didn't think about it much when I was that young other than many of my friends and family my age were dying in a war. So I thought I probably wouldn't live this long and thus I decided to live every moment of it.

There are so many adventures out there waiting to be had, so much to learn, so many places to see, chats to have, people to love, friends that are strangers you haven't met yet. Live for today, go do something different and don't dwell on something you have no control over other than to exercise, eat well and learn to deal with stress.

I love being old. I love having learned to love who I am (I think that ability comes with age). I love how I have learned to slow down and take time to appreciate the beauty and laughter life offers instead of dwelling on beating my head against a wall trying to change things that can't be changed (like getting older). It's a good trade off, arthritis slowing me down but the knowledge to split wood in a way that isn't so difficult or instant recall for not only not caring about what someone else thinks about you but not remembering it either.

Set some goals and set them high and go out to achieve them. Give yourself time limits to achieve those goals. Not only will you be too busy then to worry or dwell on getting old, you will make getting old more comfortable by achieving so many goals in life. Try it, it works.

I don't have a fear of getting older, I have a fear of wanting to do so much, but so little time. I would love to have a life support system like Mr. House's in New Vegas. Fill a computer with multiple softwares of encyclopedias and etc. I could be a genius and help the world in my own way. It's a shame that our lives are so short. I'd love to live to 200+ like House. To live so long and preserver the past in all it's glory, that'd be a dream come true for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44kBN340vd4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UQ-pHa87Gc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5RoSt7aoUM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG84k0HPLPQ (Highlander the TV series, episode 1) should ease your fears. Men have a great gift in that they usually get better looking as they age.

You'll only grow more desirable, so long as you take care of yourself

There's a joke I heard that goes "As men get older they start to look like Sean Connery, and as women get older they start to look like Sean Connery."

(sorry girls. You can take comfort though in the fact that these days even "older" women look hot, and "cougars" can be quite fine. Youthfulness lasts decades now.)

I feel the same way about my early childhood when I was 7 or 8 I believe is when I got my N64 and that got me hooked on video games. I ended up throwing away my younger years and even brought some of my friends over to the "dark side" lol. Now I'm nearing the end of my teenage years and with all the crazy things that happened and are still yet to happen I cant say I threw it away, at least not as much as my little brat years. However, I feel like I cant age fast enough I just want to finish high school and do something meaningful with my life but I'm afraid of getting "old" and I'm talking like nursing home age kind of old. Mainly I cant imagine not being able to fully take care of myself, I want to be like those old guys who live independently taking care of themselves even in their old age and chase my grandkids out of the house whenever they bring up nursing homes

Also, I think I'm not really afraid of but I'm kind of nervous about "advlt life" lol. Just the whole responsibility of it all like the paying bills and the driving to work every morning, sounds lame and it seems like everyone adapts to it easily enough but it just looks so mundane and whatnot. Probably why I think I'm going to make a career out of the Army, civilian advlt life just seems so...uninviting :shrug:

I think of it as leveling up. Hmm, where should I put my attribute points this year? Ooh, a 5x multiplier, nice!

All you can do is make the best of each day you have within the limits of what is available to you. Try to feel you have learnt something or done something decent each day then at least you can look back and say no one single day of your life was wasted.

Also keep a diary - then you can look back at what you actually did - rather than thinking "boy time files - what have I done?"

Personally I can't wait until I become older. But that's probably only because I think I going to look like George Clooney

But seriously, men get sixier as they age. I'd say they peak around their 40's

Don't worry OP, before you know it you're a 90 year old guy pooing in his nappies!

Birthdays are good for you, the more you have the longer you live.

I used to be like that when I was 21.

I'm 28 now,. I don't worry about it anymore.