Approaching 40

Anytime I tell someone (who doesn’t know me) my age, they are always in shock and disbelief. My demeanor, appearance, personality, and in particular, my face, lends people to think I’m on the younger side.

In my early thirties, this used to bother me. I truly believed my “younger-looking face” stifled me. I felt like I didn’t get certain jobs because people judged me unfairly, and I started to think that looking young equated to being inexperienced, unknowledgeable, and “just not ready for the job.” It took me years to get over other people’s perceptions of my “young face.”

Cat Boose Age 39

I did all the self-reflecting, God questions, and figuring out of why I am the way I am, why I look the way I look, why I talk the way I talk, etc., and at the end of the day, I realized, my me is exactly who I’m meant to be, young face and all. 

Over the last several years, I’ve learned to embrace my youth instead of desperately trying to hide from it or look/be older. I’ve learned to embrace the comments:

“Girl, you can’t be almost 40.” 

“But you look so young.”

“Chile, black don’t crack.”

“Cat, you’re the same age as me?”

“I thought you were 25.”

So, as I approach 40, I’m learning to fully live into what 40 will look like for me because my 40 will not be like anyone else’s 40, and I’m kinda excited about that.

#gettingolder #youthfulness #catturning40