(written by John Bowen, AASA/Discover Card Gold winner, Table Rock-Steinauer) Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we’re kids? If you are less than 10-years-old, you are so excited about aging that you think in fractions. “How old are you?” “I’m four and a half.”

You are never 36 and a half, but you are four going on five!

That’s the key. You get into your teens, and now you cannot hold us back. We jump to the next number. “How old are you?” “I’m gonna be 16.” “I’m gonna be 18.” You could be 12, but you are gonna be 16.

And then the greatest day of our lives happens: you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony you BECOME 21. Yes!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened here? Makes you sound like bad milk. He TURNED. We had to throw him out. There is no fun now. Things have changed.

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, you are PUSHING 40… stay over there, it is all slipping away. You REACH 50, and then you MAKE IT to 60…whew! And by then, you have built up so much speed, you HIT 70!

After that, it is a day-by-day thing. You HIT Wednesday, you get into your 80s, you HIT lunch. I mean, my grandmother will not even buy green bananas. Well, it is an investment, you know, and maybe a bad one.

And it doesn’t end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards: I was JUST 92. Then a strange thing happened. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again: I am 100 and a half!.

Age is a funny thing!