How old are you?

Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) asks an interesting question: What's your permanent age?

I’ve observed that everyone has a permanent age that appears to be set at birth. For example, I’ve always been 42-years old. I was ill-suited for being a little kid, and didn’t enjoy most kid activities. By first grade I knew I wanted to be an adult, with an established career, car, house and a decent tennis game. I didn’t care for my awkward and unsettled twenties. And I’m not looking forward to the rocking chair. If I could be one age forever, it would be 42.
[...]
Some people are kids all their lives. They will admit they are 12-years old. Other people have always had senior citizen interests and perspectives. If you’re 30-years old in nominal terms, but you love bingo and you think kids should stop wearing those big baggy pants and listening to hip-hop music, your permanent age might be 60.

If you know me, it won't surprise you to know that I was "born old." I've heard that for years. When people say that to me, I think they mean I have a conservative mindset (not in the usual political sense). I rarely embrace the new fads or the cutting edge trends. I'm a late adopter of lifestyle changes for the most part and I tend to subscribe to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of thought. This was true when I was a kid and it's true today. As a child I was hesitant to rush to try new things and today I'd just as soon you leave me alone and let me do what I do. I don't feel the need to be constantly trying new experiences or meeting new people.

Now let me counter that a bit. I do have the ability to be sociable and I do, on occasion, make new friends. I do enjoy going new places, seeing new things, etc., but I don't feel that I HAVE to do such things to keep from being bored. I just don't need a constant barrage of new, exciting stimuli to keep life exciting. On the other hand, I'm a serious night owl and I love to prowl around in the great outdoors. I even enjoy getting in "risky" scrapes in the wilderness. In addition, I sometimes like to go out and "act the fool." Hence, my permanent age is going to span the two extremes.

There's no way in Hades I'd go back to the teen years or even the early 20s. Can you believe the things we used to obsess over in those days? Plus, I like the fact that my work/home/financial situation is fairly stable now. On the other hand, I'm still physically active enough that I'm not going to pick 60. While things (hopefully) will be even more "settled" by then, I honestly would not want to miss the new experiences that'll come between now and then. And, much as it surprises me, I'd miss work. So anyway, I'm not picking 60. So what is my "real" age?

34 years old.

Now it's true that 34 was very recent for me and I might change my pick in a few years, but that seems like a nice age. It's old enough to be "comfortable", yet it's still young enough that I can "live it up" without looking like a complete ass. While it doesn't represent (in me at least) peak physical condition, 34 still is young enough to get lost in the woods without having a senior alert being issued. Plus, while 34 is a little old for singlehood, it's not an admission that you'll NEVER pair up. Okay, but why 34 rather than, say, 35? That is a disturbing issue that I only discovered when my odometer rolled over from 34 to 35. See, as long as you are 34 you can still claim, maybe not completely accurately, that you are in your "early" 30s. Once 35 arrives, though, you've got to be seriously self-delusional to make the early 30s claim. Once 35 rolled around, I realized that I had grown inordinately fond of that phrase "early 30s" and I was loath to give it up.

So, 34 is my permanent age. Anybody else? I'll be honest, I have mental images of all your permanent ages (at least those of you I actually know), but they're mostly based on how old you were when I knew you best. For example, Vol Abroad -- you will always and forever be an eccentric square peg in the round hole that is high school in my mind. I still can't reconcile that with your current real self. Sigh, maybe I'll be able to pull it off after I turn 34 a few more times.