As I’m fairly sure you all know by now, I have been moving house this week. Proper update coming soon, but in my absence, the lovely Jenny has written for Ducking Fabulous…

This is Jenny and I on a friend’s Krakow hen do. *Grins*

Over to Jenny…

Recently there have been a few occasions where I’ve stopped and thought, “I’m getting old!”

Before some of you get annoyed at my suggesting I might be old at the age of 26 (nearly 27!), I know I’m not old and there are many people older than me, but don’t you sometimes get the feeling the world is trying to remind you that you’re getting older?

My moments of age realisation have included:

· Waiting for my brother outside the secondary school he works at and realising I left education nine years ago and the pupils are at least that many years younger than me.

· Remembering the days of dial up internet and times before social media existed.

· The shock on the face of a girl in her early teens when I told her Facebook wasn’t around until my 20s (possibly marginally earlier for those of my age group who went to University) and I chatted to friends on MSN, which no longer exists.

· A Facebook moan of mine about road closures in Wokingham being printed in the local paper on their letters page – surely only ‘old’ people moan in papers!

· Finding out Red Nose Day is 25 years old, which means I am older than it.

· Being in a bookshop and loudly saying “Not going to pick it up then?!” to a teenager who had knocked a book off a display table and just walked away.

· My Young Person’s Rail Card expiring, meaning the rail companies no longer see me as ‘young’.

· Moaning at the price of petrol and being able to remember when it was 60-odd p per litre.

· Remembering the days when Starburst sweets were known as Opal Fruits and Cif was Jif.

Adding to this I read a blog post by HubSpot entitled ‘25 Things You’ll Have to Explain to Your Kids About Marketing One Day’, which as a marketer made me laugh out loud but also reminded me that some of these things were from years ago. And then there’s the Buzzfeed blog post which inspired HubSpot, ‘25 Things You’ll Have To Explain To Your Kids One Day’. Whilst some of the things mentioned are American and not part of my life, I can see the look on children’s faces if I showed them the two blog posts.

I don’t feel old, I don’t look old (in fact I still get ID-d and given looks of suspicion when I say how old I am) so after a momentary panic of “what have I done with my life?” I realise that the moments of age realisation are just that, realisation that I’m not 12 anymore.

I think findings from a Department for Work and Pensions survey about perceptions of age (mentioned here on telegraph.co.uk) say it all. Results showed that the perception of when ‘old age’ began varied in relation to the respondent’s age, gender and employment status – for example people under 50 thought old age was reached at 46 years; over 50s suggested 62 ½ was old age; and the over 80s said middle age began at 52 years, just 6 years later than the under 50s thought old age begins!

My intellectual summary of the survey results and answer to whether I’m getting old or not is this: age is just a perception, there is no such thing as old age and you’re only as old as you feel. Take moments of age realisation with a pinch of salt, in a few years current teenagers will know the feeling of extinct technology as well and petrol will get more expensive; I only have to recall last Saturday when I was trying (and failing) to learn Oompa Loompa dance moves from Tim Burton’s ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ remake DVD to realise I’m nowhere near being old!

What are your thoughts? Is old simply a state of mind?

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About Jenny: Gallagher by name, Gallagher by nature. 20-something marketer, hospital radio-er, National Trust volunteer and crafty person. (I’m trying to persuade her she wants a blog of her own…)