Is 60 Old?

I am completing my 60th year and I have never felt more alive.

On May 2, 2026, I will complete my 60th year on earth.

Is that old?

I used to think so when I was a kid. Forty seemed old until I got there. Then fifty. And now here I am at sixty and I do not feel old. But that raises a question I cannot shake.

Do I just not feel old because I am here and the goal post keeps moving? Am I comforting myself? Not facing reality? Or is the whole idea of old something worth questioning?

What does old mean anyway? Nothing left to offer? Crawl up in the house and wait for the end? When people say old I wonder if we really consider what we mean by it.

And here is the one that really got me. When I say I do not feel old, I realize I do not even know what old would feel like. So how would I know if I felt like it or not?

Lots of questions. Do you have the answers?

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I asked Google. And this is what the AI overview told me:

“Being old generally means having lived for a long time, typically reaching an advanced stage of life. It involves physical changes such as reduced energy, gray hair, or wrinkles and often brings wisdom, extensive experience, and a shift in perspective.”

Let me take that apart.

Living for a long time. What constitutes a long time? Compared to what?

An advanced stage of life. When exactly do you cross over? Is there a sign? A ceremony? Does someone hand you a card?

Reduced energy. Is this specific to age? Because a lot of people I know lack energy and it has nothing to do with how many years they have lived. It has everything to do with what they are eating.

Gray hair. Okay. They got me on that one. But I knew someone in junior high school with gray hair so I am not sure that counts as evidence.

Wrinkles. Getting some of those too. But plenty of people who spent their twenties in the sun have wrinkles I do not have yet. And I am Black. We do not crack. Just sayin’.

Wisdom. More wise through the years for sure. But when do you cross over to the old level of wisdom? And who decides?

Extensive experience and a shift in perspective. Now that is subjective and happens at many different stages of life. I know twenty five year olds who have shifted their perspective more times than some sixty year olds I know.

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So why am I asking all of these questions?

Because the words we speak and the narratives we accept matter more than we realize.

I refuse to characterize myself as old. Not because I am in denial. Because to me that word speaks to diminishing. Ending. Running out of capacity. And I feel just the opposite.

I feel energized. I have a zest for life that surprises even me sometimes. I am on the upswing. I know more of who I am and what I want than I have ever known. And I am excited about the next forty years of experiences, growth, impact, and everything these sixty years of living have equipped me to produce.

Sixty is not the beginning of the end.

For me it is the fullest beginning yet.

Perspective matters. What you believe is what you will live into. So choose your words carefully. Question the narratives you have inherited. Make sure they are true for you and not just something you absorbed along the way.

Because the life waiting for you on the other side of that question is worth asking.