Months ago, we all woke up to social media feeds taken over by old, wrinkled and familiar-looking faces. It was like we went to sleep and suddenly every single person you knew grew old overnight. I remember spending hours upon hours scrolling. Friends looked like a back-from-the-future reincarnation. It hit very hard that oh, dear God, we grew old so fast.
Did I upload my picture and looked at my old, wrinkled and aged face? No, I didn’t! And I know many that didn’t as well. It ‘s kind of terrifying and sort of like crossing a universal boundary.
“I know that it won’t be my real face. The age lines appear from facial expressions; how happy or sad I was over the years. The application doesn’t know my story. It’s not me.”
By nature, we are worriers. We worry about literally everything unknown or even slightly mysterious to us, aka, the future. We like to plan things, to limit the surprises and create a safe zone for ourselves.
Imagine that today, you know how you’re going to look like when you’re old. I say anxiety is going to hit pretty strong. It’s not seeing your old self that creates the problem, it’s seeing it now that makes you freak out and go into this panicky mood of how am I going to look like that? Did I achieve anything? From there starts the dilemma of more worrying.
“I felt like it will increase my fears and anxiety of growing old.”
When this app took over social media by a thunderstorm, I said: no, thank you! I’m good; I don’t want to know.
I don’t want to know how I’m going to look like when I’m sixty. And I want to wake up on my sixtieth birthday, look in the mirror, touch my wrinkles and smile with a sweet surprise. I want to meet my old self that day for the very first time and feel proud.
To age gracefully is to embrace it with a peaceful soul, sweet smile and a heart full of warm, beautiful memories. That is why I said no to the face-aging app: I didn’t want that moment to be stolen from me. I’ll still plan my life, work hard towards achieving my dreams, but I want to take it one wrinkle at a time.
Year after year, you’ll find that each smile you have will leave its beautiful mark on you -inside and out. Your grey hair will come gracefully one thread at a time, and you will love it because you’ll have earned it, worked for it and basked in the success towards it.
Growing old is the sweet fruit of all your life’s achievements, and you want to be surprised every step of the way.