As someone who JUST got a birdfeeder for my backyard....
😬

It's actually really weird that birds are cool as fuck but somehow most people ignore them until they are over 35. I don't know why that is, but it's a pretty common pattern, outside of ornithologists.

You have a GARDEN?! That means you have property! Livin' the dreeeeeeam!

Brave to assume I will look that good when I am that age.

One DAY, you're young. And then the NEXT. You're standing in your BACK YARD. Like this. Staring at your bird FEEDER.

There’s a pair of goldfinches who have settled near my yard and eat there daily! Goldfinches!

Bold of you to assume I'm gonna be able to afford a back yard.

I wish I will still have as much drip as Christopher Walken when I am at his age...

As someone who grew up with elders telling him time speeds up as you get older, I spent a year or so researching with anxiety what I could do to mitigate this feeling.

The first thing to do is refuse to indulge this idea that one day being an elder just happens: as they say, if you declare it’s a bad day in the morning, you’re conditioning yourself to look for confirmations that the day is indeed going to be bad, while potentially overlooking the good.

Time, objectively, goes at the same speed your entire life— for most people, sans astronauts or regular mountain climbers. It’s your perception of it that changes, thanks to your memory. The theory is memory is a survival mechanism: it really only commits things to memory that it deems a potential threat. If your day is routine, you are safe, there is no need for your mind to automatically record it.

So instead you need to manually record it. At the end of the day, journal either physically or mentally what you did today.

I personally use Daylio (which records data points) and BeReal (forces you to take a pic at a random time of day of yourself and whatever is in front of you), and every now and again I get to look back and say “wow, it really has been an entire month, eh?”

The other thing to do to combat it is make new memories/avoid routine, but sadly many of us are not in a position to afford this one.

For me it helps I am really into movies; I can’t really afford to travel, but movies are new experiences to me in and of themselves, and are a hacky way for me to make new memories in an otherwise routine life.

My partner is doing this. He’s telling me what bird each set of chirps belongs to and where they nest in the yard. And the next moment he’s face palming himself on the topic. Even as his dad sends him pics of the bird house he built and wired with a live feed. (Yes, there was a bird building a nest in that live feed.)

It’s good to see into your future, or so I tell him.

no way....fuck. I was feeding a rabbit.

As someone who's pretty content with life lived already, I'm cool with that.

I have bad news if you thought you could just let life happens and end up living in a house with your own backyard

This will never happen to me. Tucking in your shirt when its not a special occasion is heresy.

For whatever reason, I have seen a lot of turkey vultures this year and they're so underrated and awe-inspiring. Saw a massive flock pass overhead and it was like watching dragons coming from the horizon.

IDC what people say he's still got it

Damn squirrels!

In fifteen years you go from 45, which still feels fine for most people, to 60, which is noticeably "old" for most people.

Age 15 to 30 you didn't really notice, you noticed the changes to your life, but not the changes to your body. It's mostly the same for age 30 to 45. Not so for age 45 to 60.

lacks old man open mouth

And that’s when ur blessed with being elderly because life can be unkind between those points.

And the only thing you need is more cowbell.

dont have a bird feeder. my equivalent is wandering into my workshop to piddle with some scrap metal/wood

Happens far faster than you expect.

If you’re lucky enough to make it that far, yes

Wasn't he on the boat when Natalie Wood died?

Unpopular opinion: Christopher Walken isn’t funny.

Or a good actor. But mostly, he, and his way of speaking, isn’t funny.

I'm honestly disappointed by how common memes that express a level of disappointment or despair about aging still are even after the insane shit from the past decade. I know this isn't an extreme example, but I'll see zoomers make memes about feeling unc by 25 and it's so sad.