YOUNG AT HEART -

Walt Disney once said “Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional.”
And I raise my juice box to him, because this is so true.

So, let me guide you down the path that led me here:

Last weekend was my nephew’s tenth birthday. {He’s not technically my nephew, but I’ve known his mother since we were his age and he calls me Auntie Mandy 😍}

Anyways, his parents invited everyone they’ve ever met to come to their house on Saturday evening to celebrate the big double-digit birthday. But when we arrived at party central, we noticed that none of his lil school friends were in attendance. So, upon doing the nosy thing and asking his mother whazzup with that, she informed us that she had also planned a surprise pizza party for him and some of his friends the following afternoon.

Now, what had my WhatsApp group chat blowing up all night was the fact that my friend’s sister-in-law also showed up to the pizza party. And not only did she arrive at their house unannounced and uninvited, but she showed up early dressed to impress, and in doing so tipped off the birthday boy that something was up and ultimately ruined the surprise his mother had planned. [And this is a woman who leaves nothing to chance – she even arranged for the other parents to meet up with her husband at a different location and then convoy to the house so that the kids would all arrive at the same time in order to properly surprise her son.]

Of course, a few good points were made during the course of this discussion: 1. The sister-in-law was wrong to just show up without being invited, 2. She no doubt stuck out like a sore thumb at a party intended for school friends and their parents, and 3. She could’ve been a little quicker on her feet and fibbed about her reason for being there so as not to ruin the surprise.

HOWEVER …

I felt it was my job – nay, my Duty – to defend the sister-in-law after another friend commented that she was ‘too old for that type of thing’ anyways.

How can one be ‘too old’ for pizza and cake?

People carry around these ancient stereotypes of what a certain age should look like, especially with regard to women, and I call bullllshit!!!

But why are we letting ‘society’ tell us what is ‘age appropriate’, and how old is too old to be wearing sundresses and pigtails?

Now, don’t get me wrong. ‘Age appropriate’ is certainly necessary when it comes to certain things, eg. music and movies. You wouldn’t want your two-year-old spitting the lyrics (cuss words and all) to an Eminem song, or watching as Regan performs unspeakable acts with a crucifix in The Exorcist. But who am I to tell a grown-ass man that he shouldn’t be driving a convertible at sixty because it makes him look ‘desperate’ to hold on to his youth? What gives me the authority to judge how this man chooses to spend his money? Am I that narcissistic and condescending that I believe my views – skewed by my personal preference as they undoubtedly are – should be the yardstick by which all vehicular purchases are measured?

Age is merely a state of mind.

Yoko Ono rightly said “Some people are old at 18, and some are young at 90.”

And while the years inevitably take a toll on our bodies, causing our joints to creak like the stairs in a haunted house {I know this for a fact because I now have a couple of rather noisy knees 🤪😂}, this doesn’t mean that we have to consign ourselves to the rocking chair on the porch the minute we find that first gray hair. You can still be as outwardly vibrant and gregarious as you feel on the inside, and you don’t have to throw away your mini-skirts or trade in your Porsche for a Prius just because you stepped over the big four-oh.

So, today I’d like to share a few quotes on being young at heart: