| Presentation |
I was in the middle of an exercise video kicking away, when my son started to chuckle because apparently I looked a little funny going through the motions. I joked that I was like Sally O’Malley, a Saturday Night Live character from years back. Of course he had no idea what I was talking about, so I proceeded to explain that she was a comical character who was proud to be able to kick, stretch, and kick at the age of fifty. I quickly found a clip of Molly Shannon acting as Sally O’Malley, and as we were watching, I had a flashback to my twenty-something self, remembering watching her skits with the feeling that fifty was an unimaginable age far, far away. Realizing that I was now only a few years away from being fifty myself, I had a moment of panic wondering how I was already almost fifty. As the saying goes, time really does fly.
As I worked through my thoughts, I had another realization. If we are blessed to keep living, we all get to be different ages and to go through the stages of human life, just at different times. I once was in my twenties and able to experience that. I’ve been lucky enough to make it to forty-seven, and people currently in their twenties will one day be forty-seven too.
As I continued to ponder, I thought about how this outlook could be applied in the area of presentation. Society tends to make people feel like they have to look a certain age. I remember when I was younger wanting to look older, and as I have gotten older, I know I often want to look younger. But, perhaps people should strive to accept the age they are with the goal of feeling good and expressing the best version of their unique self. Comparisons, especially in the area of appearance, tend to bring about negative feelings. Someone who’s eleven shouldn’t feel the need to look eighteen. A fifty-two year old shouldn’t feel the need to try to look twenty-eight. This is not to say you should give up and not put any effort into pulling yourself together. It’s about presenting the best version of you, not trying to be something or someone your’e not.
Enjoy where you are at different ages and stages of your life. Each brings special gifts, and, like I said, with the gift of living, all the people younger than us will one day be whatever age we are, and we already experienced that age. All the people older than us were once whatever age we are, and hopefully we will be blessed to continue on to older ages. So, as you present yourself to the world, be authentic. Don’t let outside pressures make you feel you have to try to be an age you aren’t. Aim to focus on the positives and embrace where you are in your life, and, after all, it’s really what’s on the inside that counts.