One Day, I Woke Up as a Senior Citizen

Where did my life go?

Iva Ursano
5 min readOct 21, 2024
Author pic.

This year, I turned 62. Depending on where you live in the world, I am considered a senior citizen. How did that happen? This really hit me hard when I was in Canada in August and needed to book a bus ticket to Ottawa to see my son.

I got a senior’s discount. It was the first one I’ve ever had, and while I welcomed the discount, it also made me sad and question…

Where did 62 years of my life go?

I woke up one morning

…looked in the mirror, and the woman staring back at me was beautiful and tired.

Laugh lines, wrinkles, scars, and age spots show 62 years of a well-lived life.

My skin is starting to sag a bit, and I realize I can’t fix that without going to extremes, which I won’t do. My eyelids are starting to droop. There are slight bags under my eyes.

As I scan my body naked, I can see crepey skin on my arms, my chest, and my legs. There are age spots, skin tags, and moles where once there was soft, youthful, supple skin.

There are grey hairs in places where they never used to be.

My hands are wrinkled and show signs of age. I’m starting to feel pain where I never used to before — elbows, wrists, and…

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