Birthdays, and age in general, are super interesting, as they’re part fact and part fiction.

The fact comes from the notion that you were indeed born on a certain date, and your age corresponds to how many years since that event has occurred. There are also biological generalities that affect us, from bone density, to cognitive development, to likelihood of developing cancer that changes as we age.

The fiction comes from the reality that these generalities are just that-generalities. We’ve all heard of the octogenarian marathon runners outpacing twenty-something desk jockeys, and child geniuses out-thinking semi-retired professors. 
There is an additional level of fiction in the story that we tell ourselves about our age, and whether we “act our age,” which is all a social construct. After all, acting eighteen in 1600 England looks a lot different from what we expect of eighteen-year-olds in 2021 COVID times.

What age-related story are you telling yourself, and what would it look like to stop believing it?

PS – To celebrate my birthday, I put a new t-shirt design in my shop. Also: if you use the code “rickday21” at checkout (today only!) you’ll get 15% off your entire purchase.