Please, please, please stop calling yourself “old.”

I truly believe that “old” is a mindset, not a number. I have 25 year old friends who I’ve heard talk about how old they are and how things used to be so much easier when they were younger. I also have an 80 year old grandpa who still dances the Jitterbug with my grandma and has never once complained about his age in front of me. Instead, he gives my dad Viagra to put into his birthday cards from our family so he can make a huge scene and have everyone rolling on the floor with laughter.

People use “old” as an excuse and a crutch, when in reality it’s a completely subjective term. Like the 25 year olds who are out to dinner complaining about how “old” they are, when the table of seventy something year old ladies to their left are taking shots and laughing their asses off.

If you are constantly talking about how old and tired you are, then get ready to feel OLD AND TIRED. You can look back at the years when you were younger than you are right now (which by the way, you technically get older every single second of every single day…) and reminisce over how things used to be, or you can look back fondly and think, “WOW! I’m still alive! How fucking cool is that?!”

Not everyone gets to make it to your age. Wonderful, talented people pass away for no reason other than it was their physical journey’s end. So don’t rub it in their faces by being ungrateful for the body you have that is still living and breathing.

Those wrinkles forming by the corners of your eyes and sides of your mouth? Those are called smile lines. If you have those, it means you have been alive long enough that the number of smiles and the amount of laughter you have experienced has been so bountiful, they have left a permanent mark on your features. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t really sound like a bad thing to me. Smiling so much that if forever shows on my face sounds like a mother fucking gift.

When you look in the mirror and start comparing your body to what it used to be, do me a favor. Number one- stop doing that. Number two- start thanking your body for still being here. Thank it for putting up with all the mean things you’ve thought or said about it over the years. Thank that sweet body of yours for allowing you the opportunity to live and breathe for yet another day. Thank it for allowing you the opportunity to create more smile lines and enjoy another day of being alive.

It’s also never too late to start something new. The age that you are has no hold on what you are capable of. When I was (briefly) in college, there was a woman in her late 60’s in one of my classes and all I could think was, “Damn, what a boss. Walking into a class of 18-20 year olds with her head held high like she is about to show us all how it’s really done.”

I feel like I’m constantly reminding myself that not every successful person is in their successful field by the time they’re 20. No, a shit load of people spend a lot of their 20’s, 30’s, and even 40’s, figuring out who the hell they are and what they really want.

Some people graduate from college and immediately start making 6 figures. Some people drop out of college and immediately start making 6 figures. Soooome people do a job they hate for 30 years, then leave and follow their mother fucking dreams and THEN start making 6 figures. (AND some people are completely content never making 6 figures, but live happy and fulfilling lives.)

here is no mold or timeline for “success” or fulfillment. Oprah was fired from her first television job at the age of 23. She could have thrown in the towel and said that she was too “old” to keep trying now that she was in her…early 20’s…but instead…she became OPRAH.

JK Rowling sent the manuscript for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to 12 publishers and received 12 rejection letters at the age of 32. What if she had given up at 12? What if she never tried that 13th publisher because she was too “old” and had a young daughter to take care of?? Well, for instance, I know my life would be way different and my Gryffindor scarf wouldn’t be hanging in my closet at this very moment. But she DID keep trying.…and we all know how that turned out for her don’t we? Seven books and the entirety of many people’s childhoods entangled with each chapter later, that woman is a mother fucking billionaire.

What I’m trying to say is, don’t be afraid to start NOW. It’s not too late. You’re not too “old”. You are still alive (which is such a miracle!!!) and that means you still have the chance to keep going and keep striving for your dreams.

SO STOP CALLING YOURSELF “OLD,” PLEASE.

Love y’all.