Yes, I'm Older, But I'm Not Dead Yet!!

This year when I attended the Romance Writers of America conference, I realized I have been attending these since 1991. Yes, for twenty six years I’ve been a member of RWA and attended their conference at least twenty times if not more in my lifetime.

But this time, when I looked at some of the same people who have attended year after year, I noticed how we are all aging. The only time I really feel old is when the body aches in a new joint or I’m short of breath or I can’t keep up. The rest of the time, I feel just like I did when I was sixteen. Hopefully a lot smarter than I was then, but the same age. 

That’s not to say that I don’t see the wrinkles around the eyes, the ones forming over my lip or that the girls don’t stand as high as they once were. But let’s face it, I’m not as young either. So that brings me to this month's post. 

Ten Things Not To Say to an Older Person

1. You’ve got gray in your hair? — No Sh…Sherlock. Every day when I look in the mirror there it is. I’m hoping it will soon turn silver.
2. I’ll handle the technical stuff…What? You don’t think I haven’t taught myself how to move around on Facebook, Twitter, even learned some coding. Do I want to do it? No, but I’m an author and I have to know this stuff. 
3. What were they doing when you were young? — Huh? I’m no longer young? You mean bell bottoms are no longer in style? What about disco? Can you do the hustle?
4. Your grandchildren must adore you. — I’m sure they would if I had grandchildren, but I don’t. Yes, I’m old enough to have them, but first your child must marry or at the very least have a girlfriend. Know any single 32 year old women who are looking for a man?
5. You make a png file and change it to JPEG file and then a pdf and upload them right into your website where people can click…Okay, I’m a very technical person, but you have to remember when I graduated high school, there wasn’t a single computer in my school. The personal computer had not even been invented. Several years later we were all playing Pong on the Atari and that was the first thing close to a computer. We’ve come a long way, baby. And cell phones? Hahahaha…
6. That author is old. She can’t write sex. — Oh honey, I think sex has been around since Adam and Eve. If not you must have been hatched. You have to remember, I grew up reading the first great romances of our times. Authors Like Kathleen Woodwiess and Janet Dailey. They were ground breakers in my opinion. Mr. Grey made a genre popular, but he didn’t invent sex. Remember Beatrice Small, she wrote some of the hottest books I ever read in her golden years. Even at my age, we still have sex. Hopefully, you will too when you live this long.
7. She’s so dated…Hahaha….Yes, I am. I’ve been through so many ups and downs in this business. Honey, any author making good money, even if she’s been around for awhile may be old, but she’s doing something right. There is an author I know who is making six figures a month. She looks like a sweet little grandmother, but she’s rocking the best-seller lists every time she publishes a book. My hats off to her. Good job. She’s kickin your sweet ass, you’d be wise to learn from her.
8. I don’t want to hang with an older woman because I don’t want to hear about her grandchildren. — Wow, this was actually said about me and a friend. The funny thing is I don't have grandchildren. But that tells me you’re not interested in my knowledge or don’t think I have anything of value to add to the conversation. But that’s okay, your mindset tells me not to walk, run.
9. Older people are cranky. — Okay, I admit, I use to believe this. My grandmother’s mouth never had a filter and sometimes mine slips. Maybe we’re not cranky, but rather no longer willing to put up with people’s manipulation or what I refer to as the let me blind you with my brilliance. The blinders were removed sometime in my forties.
10. “Oh, I just love it you’re so active.” —What? I’m only in my sixties. I’m living life to the fullest and doing what I want. This was said to me by my beautiful, thirty-year old dermatologist. I wanted to respond and say, ‘yes, I left my walker out in the hall.’ 

Are these snarky? You bet they are. What did you expect from an aging romance author. Some of these I made up and some actually happened. But I think the one life lesson to be learned from them is we all have value and knowledge, we can learn from each other. Both young and old and in-between has information that can be taught if we all stop and listen to one another.

My life goal is on the day I die, to have written my best words that morning. Lay down for my nap and go off to the next realm knowing I went out kicking and screaming and doing what I love.

So tell me, what misbelief about your age has someone said to you? WARNING: What you say may be used in my next novel.

Sylvia McDaniel is hard at work on book number forty. By the time she leaves this earth, she hopes to have written 100 books. That's sixty more books in the next twenty years if she lives to be eighty.  Write on!!

www.SylviaMcDaniel.com