They Don’t Disappear All at Once

They Don’t Disappear All at Once

Aging doesn’t arrive loudly.

It doesn’t knock.

It waits until no one is looking

and rearranges the room.

It starts with forgetting where the glasses are

while they’re already on your face.

With pausing mid-sentence,

not because the thought is gone—

but because it’s walking more slowly now.

People think aging is about wrinkles.

It isn’t.

It’s about becoming invisible in conversations

that move too fast.

It’s about your stories being interrupted

because someone assumes the ending.

Once, you were the one everyone asked.

How to fix the sink.

How to survive a heartbreak.

How to keep going when things fell apart.

Now they say,

“Don’t worry, we’ll handle it,”

as if care and usefulness

cannot live in the same body.

Your hands remember things

your mouth doesn’t always find words for.

They remember the weight of newborns,

the shape of old keys,

the exact pressure needed

to calm someone who is crying.

No one teaches you

how strange it feels

to be full of memories

in a world addicted to what’s next.

Aging is not losing yourself.

It’s carrying too much of yourself

at once.

Every year adds another version of you

that still wakes up inside the same body—

the child who ran barefoot,

the lover who waited by the phone,

the parent who stayed awake

counting breaths in the dark.

They’re all still here.

They just speak more softly now.

Sometimes you sit quietly,

not because you have nothing to say,

but because you’ve learned

not everything needs to be proven with noise.

And yes, there are days

when the mirror feels unfamiliar.

When your reflection looks like someone

who survived more than they were ever thanked for.

But aging also gives you this:

the courage to stop performing,

the permission to rest,

the wisdom to know that being needed

is not the same as being loved.

If you listen closely—

really closely—

you’ll hear it.

Aging is not an ending.

It’s a long, gentle sentence

that only those who stay long enough

learn how to read.