What's age got to do with it?

Lately I've been a little lost. Who exactly am I? Does my age define me? Or is age just a number? Recently a young mom was talking about the moms group at church. She mentioned that they were glad to see some of the older moms at their last "Mom's Night Out". She looked at me. Me?!? An "older" mom?!?! What?!?!

When I picked my ego up off the floor I realized she was right. I am 45 years old. According to psychologist Erik Erickson, I am 5 years into the "middle adult" stage of my life (generativity vs. stagnation, in case you were wondering!). In fact, in 5 years, I can run in the senior Olympics! 

This has really been playing over in my head over the past couple of months. Most of the time I don't feel old. But when does one become "old"? When my aunts were approaching 50, they seemed old. I remember shortly after college when my father-in-law and all of his old friends celebrated their 50th birthdays. In less than 6 months, I'll be married to an "old" man of 50.

I guess I just want to say that you are never too old to make a change. I began my journey to become half of the old me when I was 43 years old. Noah was about 600 years old when it started to rain. As long as I still have a beating heart, there is still time to make a difference.

By the way, the friend who stated the obvious and started me down this rabbit trail was born almost two years after I got married. I could be her Mama!

Below are some pictures from an website called How-old.net that guesses your age from facial recognition. My first guess was a 78 year old man! But the before and during picture had me dropping 60 pounds and 16 years! 

So, how old do you feel? When did you start feeling old?