If you think you are old, I'd say you are already default dead and all the sympathy and palliative experiences in the world aren't going to change that. If you

If you think you are old, I'd say you are already default dead and all the sympathy and palliative experiences in the world aren't going to change that. If you want to live, live, and any invitation to a pity party over being "40" won't make it even to the bottom of my stack. The idea of 40 as old is a ridiculous artifact of early to mid-20th century life expectancies and an economy based on manual labour. Given today you are socially useless until at least about 20, after which most of that decade is spent either in school or in journeyman roles, and then your 30s are spent either raising children or cultivating taste and other affectations on the hedonic treadmill - it's very unlikely you will make something someone else wants. 40 is where one is finally capable of the skill and insight necessary to make something new and provide honest value to others. You get another two decades of prime momentum with an understanding of how the cycles rhyme, until the wisdom makes you too distant from validating the anxieties of younger people, whose struggles don't register for you anymore. Then at 60, give or take, you get another couple or so decades to really appreciate it, ideally with grandchildren, but more likely small dogs and other emotional support animals these days, and then you decide what you want to leave behind. Worry about being 40 is giving up way too early.