There’s Something Strange About Getting Older–Strange and a bit unsettling

The body keeps a meticulous record of the years. The mind, not so much.

You look in the mirror and sometimes wonder, Who is that person? The face looking back has changed—perhaps more than you’d like to admit. And yet, inside, you may not feel all that different from the person you were 20, 30, even 40 years ago.

Sure, you’ve accumulated experiences. You’ve hopefully gained some wisdom along the way. But that basic sense of you—the person looking out at the world—can feel remarkably unchanged.

Which raises an interesting question: Why is it that our bodies grow older, but the person inside doesn’t seem to age in quite the same way?

Perhaps that’s why aging can sometimes feel so disorienting. The mirror tells us one story while our inner experience tells us another.