My birthday is approaching. Another full year of my life is slipping behind me. Every time I look in the mirror, I find myself staring into my deepening lines. Then I look long and deep into my own eyes; I think the only thing that hasn’t changed on my face is those eyes, still vivid, still bright. Everything else has simply moved along with my age. And I have a little bonus too: my sunspots. But I stopped worrying about those a long time ago.
I might have stopped caring, but whenever I look around, I’m met with a completely different reality. The pull of social media is obvious—it dictates every single trend today, even down to how we ought to age. What to eat, what to wear, what to inject into our faces, and so much more…
Gen X, and perhaps Gen Y right after us, carry a deep anxiety about growing older. First of all, we just don’t want to age! And we give a green light to any intervention that promises to slow it down.
Wherever I look, I see tight faces, overfilled lips, exaggerated cheekbones, and expressions that all look strikingly alike. Of course, to each their own, but doesn’t this constant pressure to look “good and young” feel exhausting to you too? Not to mention the risks taken and the pain endured along the way.
Yet the spirit of time and trends naturally evolves anyway. Lifespans are longer today, and visually, I look quite different from how my mother did at 53. If my mother had walked around in leggings and high-top sneakers at 53, she probably would have been called crazy and cast out by society.
How we age is shaped by the times we live in, and that’s only natural. Eating well, staying active, and taking care of our skin to stay healthy are all genuinely precious.
But there is an inner side to this, too. Once we hit a certain age, wouldn’t we want to slow our pace a little, step back, look at life from the outside, and simply settle into acceptance?
Rather than trying to erase the lines on our faces, I find that making peace with them and not overthinking it all is immensely liberating.
Going against the grain, defying trends, doing whatever we truly want, and above all, just being ourselves… That’s what we need most as we grow older. And I truly believe that as the years add up, we earn even more of a right to it. Let them say, “She’s lost her mind a bit”—I honestly couldn’t care less anymore.
This isn’t a judgment; it’s simply an observation about myself and the era we live in.
As scientists tell us today, within the next decade, we will enter an era where human life will stretch noticeably longer. Life is expanding, time is opening up. So as our years stretch out, how are we, as human beings, going to adapt?
Do we want to walk this long road with our own faces—deepened with every passing year—or behind a template mask handed to us by society?
With love,
Nazan
If These Piece had a Color : It would be ”Warm Taupe”.
If These Piece had a Song : It would be :Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 21 https://open.spotify.com/track/3U5JVgI2x4rDyHGObzJfNf?si=f9047821d23d42ac 
If These Piece had a Scent : It would be ”Sage tea”
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