I notice age more during discussions about pop culture and anniversaries of historical events. The former might not register with me at all, while the latter fills me with nostalgia. I also try to learn something new every day because IMO old age comes when people are no longer interested in the world around them. Among my family members, that tends to hit in the mid-to-late 80s. 
Still, my drive never came from external pressure. I’ve always been naturally curious.
Sometimes, that precociousness caused problems. I’m slightly younger than Star Trek, and grew up watching TAS. Once I moved on from whatever reading was supposed to be for kids my age, I started on my older brothers’ books (lots of sci-fi mags, anthologies, and comics), and then my mother’s collection. 
Since she was a librarian, I got into a lot of works by Asimov, Clarke, Cherryh, Herbert, Heinlein, Butler, and Pournelle. We were all into classic movies and thrillers, so Ludlum, le Carré, Archer 
, as well as Koontz were also faves. Never really got into King, and one Clive Barker story (“The Body Politic”) has haunted me from the time I read it, so…I chose sleep over going any further down that road. 
Now it amazes me to consider how many younger years were spent seeing various themes of drama and trauma as entertainment or history lessons. On the plus side, they included some survival and crisis management skills. Now I’m focusing more on sharing life lessons with my Millennial nephew and his peers.
What’s also interesting are various types of invisibility that come with aging. That’s been noted by women in general, and women of color in particular. Although mobility gets more challenging sometimes, I keep the possibility of imitating agent Trinity in mind as motivation to stay flexible and continue with physical therapy. No, not that Trinity - the other one.
For me, those years went by in a blur of working and making career moves. Now I’m all about this:
