24 & Every Other Excellent Number


So it's my birthday today and I'm 24 entire years old and I wanted to make a post about something I care about: how we treat age. Dominant ideas about getting older are pretty soul crushing and harmful for so many of us! A while ago I had the idea that maybe I could make a bunch of posts about inspiring old(er) women. I wanted to do this because I felt like it would be a great way to be positive about age, and it's something that makes me feel so excited to be older, thinking about Tove Jansson, Yayoi Kusama, Marina Abramovic, Yoko Ono, Aretha Franklin, and so many other amazing women. I also would love to interview some old women who aren't well known, because it's great to look up to ordinary people and to see how cool everyone can be! Here's an article about some very old family members of mine who have been married for 72 years.

I started to notice at about twenty years old how uncomfortable my friends were about entering their twenties. It was pretty uniform amongst everyone I knew who was turning twenty or twenty one and it stunned me that that this kind of age dread could happen so early, since just a year or two previously they'd been really happy to celebrate another birthday.

I wasn't immune to this and definitely started to feel a bit off about my increasing number, and a bit worried I wasn't reaching expectations of progressing enough, but this time I feel really excited, like I'm turning seven and I know I'm going to get a Furby and it's going to be amazing. I try to keep reminding myself that I'm a person, not just an age, and that everyone's life looks different. I shouldn't discredit all my achievements and everything I've learned before now. I still have so much life ahead of me and it's useless to put some arbitrary time limit on myself. Someone will always have done bigger things than me, but I'm the only person who can be me no matter how old I am. At the moment I'm so excited to become every age! Every year brings a million new opportunities and who knows how many raspberries I will get to eat this year! I will be a great 36 year old or 62 year old or 50 year old and this year I'm going to be a great 24 year old! :-)

xxx
Whispered by on

14 comments:

  1. Anonymous1 February 2015 at 14:37

    Love your article! Its really inspiring!

    xx

    Curvybird.blogspot.nl

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    1. Lilly Ashton1 February 2015 at 16:35

      Aw thank you! I hate that people get sad about their birthdays. It should be a time to celebrate yourself!

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  2. Aslı1 February 2015 at 14:57

    Lovely article. I feel worried about not reaching the expectations of certain ages too. It was nice to see that I'm not alone. Happy birthday!

    Girl Against Oleka

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    1. Lilly Ashton1 February 2015 at 16:36

      Thank you :-)
      I wish we could all concentrate a bit more on making ourselves proud no matter what we do or how old we are! x

      Delete
  3. Charlotte.1 February 2015 at 15:14

    Yes I love this!!! I'm turning 22 in 3 days & this is exactly how I need to feel.

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    1. Lilly Ashton1 February 2015 at 16:37

      Well happy birthday to you! Be proud of yourself and the fun you're gonna have this year! xx

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  4. Unknown1 February 2015 at 20:56

    I loved reading this. I'm 23 this year and I'm rather uncomfortable about it and I'm not entirely sure why. I think it's the expectations to stop getting things wrong that you can definitely get away with when you're younger. I loved reading this and happy birthday :)

    Rebecca
    rebeccamariee.blogspot.com xx

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    1. Lilly Ashton1 February 2015 at 21:23

      Yeah there's definitely a strong cultural idea of what you should be in your early twenties vs what you should be in your teens, although looking back I don't think I was given much encouragement to be myself/make mistakes/learn on my own terms as a teen either, but now it feels like there's an added level of supposed "success" that we're meant to be at suddenly as twenty-somethings.

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    2. Lilly Ashton1 February 2015 at 21:25

      Although I also a lot of teens looking at other people their own age and saying "why aren't I as accomplished/secure/smart/whatever as this person". There's constant comparison and it's like it heightens with age as if we're trying to win a race against our own bodies and each other.

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    3. Lilly Ashton1 February 2015 at 21:26

      *see a lot of teens

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  5. Danielle1 February 2015 at 21:16

    i just turned 25 and i do feel really old at times! however i still look pretty young so i'm not too worried about it haha. happy birthday :)

    xx danielle // shades of danielle // bloglovin

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    1. Lilly Ashton1 February 2015 at 21:28

      I noticed I'm starting to get wrinkles recently and it was a shock moment, but I really hope I can be happy about looking older because it's gonna happen no matter what and I don't want to dread it or feel somehow uglier because my body is changing in ways that literally every other body will.

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  6. Olga2 February 2015 at 08:48

    Happy birthday! I'll be a great 50 later in the year and I think the best is yet to come!

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