Not As Young Anymore: The Realization

We all realize in different ways that although you're not old, you realize that you're not as young as you used to be. For me, it was overnight. Literally.

For years, I used to say jokingly that, “I'm not old, but it is hell getting there” followed by a laugh. As I grew older, I found I laughed less and less, and now I just sigh. I'm still not old, but I'm certainly not as young as I used to be.

I haven't been delusional by any means. I know I've lost several steps from my shortstop/second base playing days. My knees from time-time will scream at me to lose weight, usually after prolonged exposure to a series of steps. I know that I am not that young, spry, funky chicken strutting across the yard anymore, but I still felt like I had a strong mind. That was until I had to visit the eye doctor.

My family doctor set up an eye appointment for a glaucoma test, so they did a full exam. First they checked the left eye. I read the bottom line like a champion sprinter. Then came the right eye where I encountered a few hurdles trying to read the bottom line.

“Is that an '8' or a 'B'? That's an 'M', no an 'N'.”

In the end, I learned that left eye was better than 20/20, and my right eye was slightly less than 20/20. The eye doctor then asked me if I had trouble reading because of that. I honestly answered no. He looked at me like he didn't believe me.

The very next day I noticed throughout the day that I had to slow down to read some things. WTH? I was reading like I'm weaving in-and-out of traffic on I-380. Then literally overnight I'm running into pockets of traffic slowing me down.

It reminded of a story. A friend 's truck was smashed into because someone ran a read light and flipped his ride. When he came through, he saw the driver of the other car talking to the officer, the offending vehicle, and all kinds of little details (all verified in the police report). Then his nervous tick of pushing his glasses back up nose kicked in.

He was blind as a bat, and just realized that his glasses were not on at all. Instantly his 1/100 vision (or what ever it was) took over, and his entire world blurred.

So my theory is that I don't feel old because of time catching up with me. I blame the eye doctor for my overnight introduction to the 'not as young as I used to be' club.