As you get older you may wonder, what are the positive effects of aging? Once you reach a certain age, you start to notice the deterioration. Your back cracks when you stand up. You suddenly have to think about your knees instead of just automatically using them. You notice that you let out a long sigh when you sit down after standing for a while. It’s easy to get caught up in thinking about the downside of aging. A lot of people even go through a grieving process. But what are the positive effects of aging?
You really do know more, even if it takes you a couple of seconds to remember it. Really, would you go back in time if it meant you wouldn’t remember the positive effect of the Berlin Wall coming down? If you would never understand how amazing the transformation to the computer age was? If you would only know "Scooby Doo" as live-action? Many young people today don’t even recognize the phrase, “If it weren’t for those dratted kids!”
You have an extra beat before words come out of your mouth. When you were twenty, if the cashier got snippy, you were likely to snipe back. Now, as a more seasoned individual who has experienced some aging, you can remember times when life got you down and you weren’t all you should be. When the guy cuts you off on the freeway, you have that one reasonable second to decide if you want to go into full-scale road warrior mode.
You have wisdom. I know (or, as the kids would say, “I know, right?”), no one uses the word wisdom anymore. But you’ve got it anyway. With aging, you've got that extra little insight that you just didn’t have when you were younger. You just know when the kid is lying to you. You can tell, just from the angle of the bag boy’s body, that’s he’s pocket texting while at work. You can watch a woman’s face when she talks about her home life and know when things are going badly.
You’re out of the game. Realistically, people in their twenties don’t even see people in their forties. You’re just a prop in their world, there to provide services or money and not cramp their style. They still believe that they can and should be perfect. This might not seem like a positive effect of aging, but now that you’ve got the graying hair, the wrinkles, the sags and the crepe-like skin, you’re out of the perfection game. Relax and enjoy life.
When you’re in the first traumatic stages of realizing that your youth is gone, you may not believe that you can actually be content with aging. And sure, everyone would cheerfully give up the aching joints and three nighttime jaunts to the bathroom. But as time goes on, you come to realize that those disadvantages are outweighed by the positive effects of aging.
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