Children on Playground I’m tired of “I’m old.” I’ve been feeling old since I left home at 18. I got married at 22, and by the time I was 30 I was a wife and a mom with a house and a career and I felt old. I meet old people all the time. They’re 35, or 23, or 47, or 17, or 74, or 63.

Thank God when I turned 30, a woman who’d been alive a few decades longer than me explained that I wasn’t old. She marvelled at how young I was, at how much music I had in me. She told me not to give up, and to shrug off the heavy expectations and chronological frustrations of all those old people around me. Just like I’m telling you. You’re not old. You’re either dead or alive. Is there life force within you? You are alive. Don’t ask if you deserve to live. You are alive. Don’t ask if you are too old to fight your disease. You are alive. Don’t ask if you should learn something new. You are alive. Now grow!

You don’t stop ****** because you get old, you get old because you stop ******.