Gettyimages.com/women walking in nature
It’s kind of funny to me how often I can just not be bothered as I get older. My filter for what information I pay attention to or take in is getting stricter and stricter. I completely ignore places and people and things that I once thought were so important. Maybe it’s because the older I get, the more obligations I take on, so any free time or mental real estate is very precious. I’ve become far more discerning about how I spend either of those things. For example, a sort of good friend recently didn’t invite me to her birthday trip but invited our two other common friends. Five years ago, I would have had a bone to pick with her. Today, I’m content knowing she had her reasons, she appears to still like me in our other interactions and—honestly—I wouldn’t have wanted to go on the particular trip they took. See, things can actually be quite simple if you let them be. Here are things you care about less as you age.
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A perfect physique
So long as I do the best I can while still enjoying life and respecting myself, that’s enough for me. But I will no longer suffer at all for a certain body type. I’d rather enjoy life every day and have a soft stomach than hate life every day and have a hard stomach. That decision seems too obvious to me now.
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Celebrity gossip
I don’t give a rat’s you-know-what about which celebrity is dating whom and who got plastic surgery or who had a meltdown at an awards show. None of that could possibly affect my day-to-day life in any way. I have too much else to worry about.
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The trendier bar
I do not need to see what all the fuss is about at the bar with the long line. At the end of the day, a bar is a room with chairs that serves alcohol. No type of décor or clever cocktail name can make a bar worth waiting an hour for to me.
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New bands
I’m pretty much all set in terms of finding my music. Sure, sometimes I hear a song from someone I don’t know and I like it. But I don’t look them up and listen to the rest of their music the way I did when I was younger. I have my musicians to whom I’m loyal.
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Having attention
I don’t need attention. I don’t need to be the girl with the most provocative dance moves standing on a table at a bar. I don’t need my social media posts to get likes. I barely even post. If I’m enjoying myself, that’s all that matters—I don’t care if anyone else envies my life or not.
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Having a companion at dinner/the movies
I don’t have time to coordinate schedules with someone and wait two weeks to see a movie I want to see. I’m going to that movie on my own. If I’m going to coordinate schedules with someone, we’re going to get together and talk—not watch a movie. Oh, and I’m also not waiting two hours past the time I’m hangry to have a dinner companion. A table for one is fine with me.
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Brands
Caring about brands is absolutely ridiculous to me now. If I like a certain brand, it is because their items are clearly superior to others. It is not because they put their apparently high status logo on a t-shirt that is exactly the same as the t-shirt sold in packs at the drug store.
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New social media apps
I’m pretty much done learning how to use social media apps. Whichever ones I already know how to use will be the ones I die knowing how to use. I’m maxed out on learning about filters and hashtags.
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Being invited
As I mentioned in the introduction, I really don’t care whether or not I’m invited to most things. Unless someone is truly, without question, my best friend, I’m unbothered if most people don’t invite me to things. Hey, I have the capacity to make plans—I don’t need to sit around and wait to be invited.
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A little male attention
When men used to flirt with me it would annoy and frustrate me. But now that I’m fighting the good fight against wrinkles, well, it sort of makes my day if a young gentleman flirts with me at the grocery store.
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Changes in the plan
I’ve been around long enough to know that most things don’t go as we plan. I know that on the macro scale, so when it happens on a micro scale (like where we go to dinner or which hotel we stay at) I’m okay with it. I wasn’t hung up on things going any particular way.
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Having tons of sex
Oh boy. That’s fallen way low on my priority list. My boyfriend of nearly six years and I have a lot of other things we’d like to do, like finally get around to trying that one restaurant we’ve been meaning to go to for eight months but work keeps getting in the way. Or sleeping. Or finally replacing the shower liner.
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The new fad diet
Whatever it is, I’m out. Nope. Can’t do it. Sorry. I seem to have come this far feeling pretty good and being content with my body. There really isn’t anything the new fad diet can offer me that would make it worth learning all those rules.
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Anyone’s opinion on you
I don’t care what anyone thinks of me. I’m unapologetically myself, and the people who like me are clearly meant to be in my life and the people who don’t are clearly not meant to be in my life.
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Being blatantly frugal
I will absolutely order the cheapest wine at the restaurant by asking, “Can I have your cheapest wine please?” And I will rush everyone through lunch to make it to the matinee show for cheaper tickets.
