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Dec 2018

I understand when children and teens are happy that they become older, because they still grow up, and their bodies are developing.
But after 25, your body isn't developing anymore, only deteriorating. With age you become just more ill, more fat, more fragile, less energic and less beautiful. Studying new things and making new friends become harder. And you are closer and closer to inevitable death from old age. :disappointed_relieved:
The birthday remind that.

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    Dec '18
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    Dec '18
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I mean, it'll remind you of that if that's how you wanna see it. I'm kinda the same in that, I don't like celebrating my own birthday, I just don't like having so much attention on me, though I'll admit, it does suck when your closest friends forget your birthday.. that's a tangent though.

Anyways, people can choose to see as another year of getting older and more fragile, a reminder of the finality and futility of life in general.. or they can view as a celebration of another year of you existing, being healthy enough to still be a part of their lives, a reminder that life is short, but at least they or anyone else won't have to face that alone. Or somewhere in between, I dunno.

Either way, some see it as a holiday, others see it as a regular day. But if people wanna do something nice for you on that day, just understand where they might be coming from~

Perhaps this should be the new birthday song for the over 25s:

I think birthdays are generally to celebrate another year of life.

The thing is, that while the body stops growing at some point (not counting muscles generated working out or exercising), one never stops growing as a person and learning new stuff. Of course, this part is a more active one that comes from a personal decision.

Sometimes we think we have seen all and that there`s nothing new in life, but that is far from the truth. Trying new things (even if it is something new in an activity you already do) can bring back the sense of wonder and discovery.

My father is close to 70 years old and is still young in spirit, he actually practices kenjutsu with me on the weekends and is pretty good for someone his age.

Deteriorating is something that happens when we stop doing new things. My personal recommendation is to look for something to exercise your body (no need to go pro, just make sure is healthy and you enjoy it) and something to exercise your mind (like learning things that caught your curiosity)

Hope this helps!

I hated birthdays since 14 for reason that you've got closer to the death with every year. But i started to love birthdays for the last two years because it's valid reason to get as much booze as you can, take your friends and go to the adventure of mindless alcohol consumption :smiley:

I feel that mostly happens to people who either have weak bodies to begin with, those who might've been in a terrible accident (and/or other circumstances that might lead to these results), or those who don't and/or can't take care of themselves as they're aging. It might have something to do with how you're genes are wired too, but the point is that not everyone deteriorates as they get older.

In my family -- you're only as young as you feel. Everyone takes care of themselves because they want to live as long as possible and have a meaningful life, for however long as they live. They don't try to stop learning, even if some of their minds might slip, and they don't stop being as energetic as they used to be.

Like -- death is inevitable. Shit's gonna happen. So we might as well live life to as full as we can. And that has, ironically, made many of my family members live longer.

I come from a family of people who live into their late 90s, early 100s. And these people did the same thing they always did. Some drank, some smoke, some played cards, some still drive their cars, go out, and have fun. And I'm mostly surrounded by older people in their 40s, 50s, 60s, who are having fun and just...embracing life.

My god mother -- who's 87 -- still makes her moonshine, still lives in her house, and rollerskates. She's in very perfect health. And my great uncle -- who's 96 -- still tries his drive, goes out, is still walking, and lives alone. Of course, we will always check up on them because, despite how healthy they are, something could still happen at that age. But we don't treat them as children because..well, they're mostly doing fine. They're taking care of themselves.

So for me -- birthdays are a celebration of life. You have to make life the way you wanna make it worth while. Like, even if you didn't celebrate it, death is still gonna happen. So I'd rather celebrate the beginning of my life with the people I care about than not to.

Just -- for my end -- life's not gonna stop being meaningful for me after 25. If anything, it's gonna start becoming more exciting! And I'm looking forward to it. :blush:

I love birthdays :heart: Even my own! Heck, even when my body finally gives out, I'll still be happy to see another year live through it. Things may get harder, but that's life, really. But you always have o remember to take ease and humbleness in what you have and how you've grown through the many years of your life. Birthdays shouldn't always be seen as sad, but more as a way to look back and what you've done, see how far you've gotten, and see how you can move forward even with what little you have. And overall, don't forget to continue to enjoy yourself. :slight_smile: Not every day has to be a sad day.

o dear somebody need a tickle!

every birthday is not just a year of getting older, its a year you have succeed in over coming the troubles the last year presented you with. it is about mental attitude and trying to stay happy no matter how hard life throws stuff at you.
you will only feel old if you let go of your inner child ( and i never have to do that because i have no kids!)

Yes, some people resist aging better than others. I'm glad to hear that your old relatives are continuing to live actively. I really like to see people who are not giving up, learning new things and having fun even in the old age.
But, to be honest, my old relatives are just awaiting their death, either sitting on the armchair, consuming propaganda from official TV, or growing tomatoes and leading stereotyped meaningless talks with other old people, repeating the same things again and again. They of course have annoying chronic diseases and look not very good (I myself already have chronic diseases, even if not old yet, lol). When you suggest them anything new, they are saying that it is already too late. ...well, now I'm saying about the best case.
The worst case is the medical confirmed dementia.
Only those relatives who suicided or died from excess alcohol intake before getting old, avoided all of this. :smirk:

But well, even in the best case, if you are trying your best to resist age processes and continue to hold yourself in shape, you will lose this battle sooner or later. At the end, every person who lived long enough, died from age-related diseases, even if they tried hard to be healthy.

Haha, of course you can have a good life for a quite long after 25 :relieved: The bad part it that it will eventually end ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Health will get worse anyway (even if slowly), and end will approach, whatever your desire.

We have 60-70 year olds in our Kung Fu studio! They spend a lot of their free time there during the day practicing so they're ridiculous good at it too. One 65 year old guy is hunched over and has issues with flexibility, but he hits like a truck. xD

Health is something where if you don't use it you lose it. But those who stay active are known to live well beyond the average. My grandpa was hiking at 70, and my grandma would walk to the shops and back on her own at 80. She never stopped making new friends in her neighbourhood by just going around talking to everyone. She always had interesting stories. Not to mention the old folks I end up meeting in various guilds in games. Some 70 y/os like high end raids haha, they get a lot of socializing that way.

Yes, it is nice to recall when you lived through hard times and succeed in something. But it all is in the past, anyway. Unfortunately, in the future you will face not only good things, but diseases and inevitable death as well. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I mean -- again, that comes with age. It just...it's gonna happen -- if not from illnesses, then just from old age. I feel it's more on whether or not people are willing to either A) embrace that it might happen and work against it to at least slow it down or B) embrace it might happen but still continue to try and live their life to the best possibility that they could.

I guess another example from my family are my grandparents. As far as I know, they are the youngest in my family to have died (he was in his 40s, she lived to be 71). And that was only because they had illnesses (I never knew what my grandfather had, but my grandmother lived with cancer).

And...well, you wouldn't have known that looking at them. I never knew my grandfather, but the stories about him leading up to his death showed that he cherished the life he had despite those illnesses. Same with my grandmother -- she kept going until it was her time to go.

At the end -- I guess it really can come down to how mentally and emotionally you are prepared for aging and prepared for that inevitable death. Will you worry about it every day? Or will you say "hey, it's gonna happen sooner or later" and just live as best as you can?

I definitely understand the thinking behind all of this. A lot of people think "when you get older, you can't do much anymore, so you shouldn't even try" and sometimes, that's true, depending on the circumstance. I just wish that this thinking wasn't made into a fact. Age can slow you down, of course, but how you embrace that can might the difference.

isn't it less about getting older/surviving another yr and more about celebrating the day you were brought to the world? In other words, the day the world got more awesome because you became a part of it.

Well, you and my dad seem to have a lot in common, haha! He HATES celebrating his birthday. However, I find that people who have regrets about past decisions or inactivity in their earlier life are the ones that don't like their birthdays.
I hope that's not the case with you. :slight_smile:

As a positive spin, you may be getting older, and your brain may not develop as quickly, and your body is slowly dying. But you're still alive, and able to talk to us about it. That's a win in my books.
Your brain, by the way, is just as capable of learning as always, and your body can still be sleek and awesome. It just takes a bit more work than before. And you know what? It's not so bad! It gives us more opportunity to enjoy the journey of learning and bettering ourselves. And we're more mature and able to appreciate it.

So, if it is your birthday. Happy birthday, you crazy, awesome, brain-body combination!

Yeah I really don’t see birthdays as a celebration of your body’s physical condition just the day you were brought into existence. I think it’s more of a milestone than anything.

In my usual state (let's call it "state 1"), when I'm not depressed very much, I'm worrying about it... not every day, but from time to time. And those worries, of course, make me more depressed. If other bad factors will come to the game, it all have a chance to lead me to the state 2.

If I feel very depressed ("state 2"), yes I'm saying exactly this - "hey, it's gonna happen sooner or later". If death is inevitable, why fear it? And than add: "Maybe it will be better to meet it by yourself?" And starting to planning when and where commit suicide. But when I catch myself on those thoughts, I understand, that thoughts about the suicide are the symptoms of depression, and my life is not so bad objectively to think about it. So I start to fight depression and return to the state 1. The loop closes.

I know that this is something unhealthy, but I can't find the mistake and break the circle for years.

I don't know, is it even possible to avoid this loop, without appealing to believing in the afterlife in any form (because I don't believe in it)? And I'm saying not only about religion afterlife here. If people say that they will "continue to live in their children" or "in the results of their work", it sounds meaningless to me as well. When I will die, I will give no shit about what will remains from me, because I will give no shit about anything.
Probably, the best advice which I've heard is just not to think about all of it, but I can't control my mind flow so good. I'm trying to distract myself, but I still think from time to time. For example, when birthday comes.
Of course I've told therapist about it, but she didn't say anything which I've didn't hear before, so it don't help. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I mean --- I get it. Death is scary.

We really don't have any concrete evidence that there is an afterlife or another existence just yet. And the fear just comes with not knowing what's beyond death. We're beings that need to understand, need to know things, and not knowing is always a big fear for all of us.

For all we know, we just go to another existence that exists outside of our universe. Not unlikely.

Sometimes when death pops in my mind, I do wonder "what will happen to me", and I get even a bit anxious, uncomfortable.

But at the same time -- I just turned 21. I'm just beginning my life.

I'm not saying that fear in death is silly because it's not. It's a wide-known fear, and I know most people have it, even those who live their life to the fullest. I have it in me. I just -- thinking about death constantly won't stop it. It'll just have us pass up those good moments in our lives or be too fearful to make them because we're constantly thinking about it.

I do wish you the best of luck.

Well... Just today I've counted how many years of work experience could I had, if I had better health and more love of work to being able to work continuously and full-time. And, of course, if I finished the school and university in time.
If I were more consistent and hardworking, I could be already senior developer and have a lot of money.
But when I've thought more about it, I understand that I don't really want it, to be honest. Actually I like more to have the time for self-developing, reading interesting books, increasing erudition and now even making comics, instead of crazy work for all life.
Too bad that money are still running out when you are not doing damn work. So you should do something about it from time to time anyway, because it's impossible to live without food, clothes and medicine :unamused:

Yes, this is true. It is just hard to concentrate on good aspects sometimes :confused:

ok now you done it i had to put my serious head on.
it sounds to me like you have a bad case of depression and need to distract yourself out of think funk. I have not only suffered this and still do from time to time, but i have worked with people suffering mental and physical problems.
yes we are all heading for the same box in the end, but do we really want to stick around and watch all we love die around us? best you can do is make the most of the life you have and consider how bad it could be and how fortunate we are in our lives.
my comic is not only my work but it's my salvation, a world to hide in away from the troubles that await me and bug me. creative people have that advantage we can use our talent to escape and if we have emotions we need to get rid of we can do that in our creations. If birthdays are the trigger point in your depression you need to find a way to deal with that so your not thrown into a funk.

now smile god dam it!

@mariusthered @Jenny-Toons @storytimebiondi and all,
Thank you for support :pensive::heart:

You are right! Creative work help either to transform your bad thoughts into the story about something non-existing and keep a distance from them this way, or to just completely distract from them and imagine something non-related to your problems at all.