Lie About Your Age

Excerpt from Daily Cures, Wisdom for Healthy Aging by Connie Mason Michaelis

It is interesting to think about the stages of life when we view aging differently. When you are four-years-old, you can’t wait to be five, so you can go to school.  Teenagers get fake licenses to prove they are older.  When you are 20, you can’t wait to be 21 for obvious reasons. As you move into your 30’s, there is an urge to start lying about your age to appear younger. What changes? At some point, we want to freeze our age.  Maybe we are feeling older at work because the new hires are right out of college.  Perhaps our children are approaching the age we think we should be!  And then there is the magic 39, the number that adults want to cling to.  Mary Kay Ash, the make-up magnate, never told her age, she said she was thirty-through!  Have you ever lied about your age? 

I have an idea for you to consider.  Why not start saying that you are older than you are?  When I relocated to Topeka, I had to start with a new physician. When I arrived at the office, the nurse looked up at me and said, “Are you really 82?”  Of course, I was startled; it became apparent that the paperwork had the wrong birthdate by 20 years!  She immediately started complimenting me on how great I looked.  I went along with it for a few seconds because I thought it was so humorous. I learned a lifelong lesson that day; you should lie up about your age!  Go ahead and promote yourself by 20 years and see what response you get!  I work in an industry that celebrates old age. The older you are, the more admiration you receive.  We even talk about people being 99 and a half so that we can gear up for a big 100th celebration!

“Eventually, you’ll quit lying about your age and start bragging about it.” Will Rogers