- Joined
- Dec 25, 2005
- Posts
- 22,238
- Reaction score
- 120
- Points
- 63
It's always interesting to see these threads. It'd be cool if there was a way to track these types of threads to see if the demographics have changed over time. That doesn't seem likely, but it could be interesting.
I can answer that. Conveniently enough, one of the "breaks" in the poll is between 29 and 30 years old.
I say conveniently, because very soon after I joined, I chose five or ten random dates, and looked at all the birthdays, and tried to find what the median (not average) age was on this site, and I came out with the median age here being 29 (with STRONG statistical confidence). This was close to five years ago that I did this.
Looking at the poll as I write this, there are SLIGHTLY more votes in the two younger-than-30 tiers, than in the three older-trhan-29 tiers. Which means...the median age in our poll is also 29. (The younger-than and older-than numbers are SO close to equal that, for the median age to be 28 or below, there can be almost nobody voting who's 29, and I seriously doubt that. Very statistically unlikely.)
Just like about 58 or 59 months ago.
I'm pretty well accustomed to how statistics work, and standard deviations, and all that stuff...
Mason, your essay is exquisite. Definite food for thought. Though this is NOT an "It Gets Better" thread for those who may be distressed etc., per se,, your post does indeed tell us that it gets better.
i am 59
but i swear ... i don't feel any different physically from when i was 30 ...really
i backpack long miles in the desert and mountains a couple of times a year and camp and hike many weekends ... mountain bike, canoe, run, play sandlot ball, work long hours pushing equipment & patients around the hospital ... basically anything i choose to do
and i never have an ache or pain ... practically never ill
for my health and opportunities i am infinitely grateful ..i always say "God didn't make me pretty,
but he made me healthy ... and i'm satisfied" ... but some people call me cute, too
Other than the one BIG exception seven years ago (kidney cancer - which was discovered, ACCIDENTALLY, VERY early in development - and I've recently reaffirmed that there's no sign of a recurrence), I'm in the same boat as you are. I can actually do MORE at 63 than I was able (or at least eager) to do at one-half my current age. Seven months ago I walked up a hiking trail in Glacier National Park (the U. S. one) which gained 1,835 feet of elevation, and all four of my hikes where I gained 1,000 feet or more have been in the 21st Century. (Actually the one in West Virginia gained 990 feet, but I'm counting it, LOL.) I wouldn't have even considered trying to hike up 1,835 feet in 1980. I remember hiking up a 500 or 600 foot trail in Canada (Gros Morne National Park) in 1984, and it was all I could do to reach the top. On the recent trip on the way home at Yosemite, I followed two hikers up a trail and I estimate I climbed about 450 feet before turning around and retreating, and that was a piece of cake... (They were trying to hike much, much farther than that by nightfall, and I didn't want to deter them any further.)
And yes, like you, I know any number of people considerably younger who have major health issues. I've noticed a pattern over the years that MANY PEOPLE run into health issues before they reach 60, and if they manage to get past that age (health issues or not), more than likely they'll make their 70's.
I strongly believe that pattern, even though both of my parents "violated" it by dying in their 60s.
