The Late-Onset Adolescence of a “Middle-Aged” Gay Millennial
Reframing our narratives of what it means to be young
My heart sank as I listened to my favorite podcast, and out of the blue, the guest proclaimed “Thirty-eight is not young!” with a biting sardonic edge in his voice that implied any 38-year-old who thinks they’re “young” is a fool.
A few days later, I was having coffee with my best friend, and he reminded me the average life expectancy in America is 76-years-old, which would put me and him, at 38, right smack in the middle of life.
The idea of being “middle-aged” is so hard to accept because it conjures an image that is so different from how I see myself — an image derived from a heterosexist notion of the timeline our lives are “supposed” to adhere to.
Determined to shake off this mounting feeling of inadequacy and dread, I said to myself — What could you do right now that would make you feel wildly alive? …And then I worried that sounded like a “midlife crisis”.
But then I chuckled and thought — Wait a minute, I can’t be having a midlife-crisis… I’m only a few years out of my late-onset adolescence!
