I want to have a partee! Will you join me?

[Ashley]

Thank you for the warm welcome and including me in this special place. I've been reading more about the culture of the board as far as age and aging and it looks like @Dragon has already set the precedent as far as how I want to talk about how a sudden change in society's perception affects me: I'm still me. This is an interesting experience I want to talk about and maybe give some younger folks a "heads up" so they don't get blindsided, but it does not define me. I did not suddenly wake up one morning and decide to become an "old person".

It makes me so sad and angry that I couldn't give my kids simple things I took for granted, like time to "go outside and play" with dogs and other kids and nature, but it helps to talk to other people their ages, who are just people like myself and the "missing sixtysomethings" who used to mentor me online, and that we have more similarities than differences.

I like having friends of different ages and being able to acknowledge that just as matter of factly as we do living in different countries and growing up with different native languages.