Any birthday is cause to do some looking back over your life. With my 58th occurring within the last few weeks, I started asking myself a simple question:

If you could choose to be any age, what age would it be? 

It’s an intriguing question if you think about it. I mean, each stage of your life holds its own set of benefits and curses, so you’d have to consider your options carefully. 

Those options would be:

– Teenager

– Young Adult (20-39)

– Mature Adult (40-59)

– Older Adult (60-69)

– Sit and Curse at Evening News (70-above)

I didn’t include children because I’m not sure anyone would really choose to be as clueless as they were when they were 5, although the innocence of finding joy in stomping around in a mud puddle surely does hold some allure. 

There are many factors to consider when thinking about what would be your “perfect” age. But when you get down to brass tacks, I see four categories of consideration that are pretty inarguable:

1. Overall health (mental and physical)

2. Security

3. Wisdom

4. Motivation

When you take each of those into account, the formula for making a decision on what your best age would be becomes quite complex.

For example, most teenagers are very healthy but they are often rolling pennies to be able to buy gas, and even though they think they know everything, they are actually pretty clueless overall and are not very motivated. But then, you take the older crowd, it’s almost the opposite: they have far more health issues, but are fairly secure, much more wise, but at the same time not very motivated because they’re in a “comfort zone.”

It’s an interesting question. I did an internet search for “what is the best age to be,” and the results surprised me. 

A Harris poll conducted a few years back asked over 2,000 Americans that very question. The result? Not 20. Not 30. Not even 40. 

Surprisingly, the majority of Americans felt that 50 was the best age to be. 

Why? Because most see that age as having the best of all of the things mentioned above. Because of medical advances, a 50-year-old today is much more like someone in their early 30s from even just a few decades ago, so they are healthy. They’ve probably found their path to financial security (if they ever will). They’re old enough to have learned the valuable lessons those younger folks have yet to encounter. And they still have enough years in front of them to be motivated to work on themselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually. 

Now, to be sure, as mentioned before, each stage of life does feature its own unique benefits and problems, especially when you consider each of the four areas of consideration. And it’s not to say that there aren’t 20-somethings and/or 70-plus-year-olds who have found a solid landing place in all four.

In other words, each age holds its own set of blessings. Savor your age, and bloom where you are now planted and growing. 

I also learned something else in researching this topic: each age-group has its own special name depending on what decade of life they are living in. As an example, people such as myself who are between 50 and 59 years old are considered to be quinquagenarians. 

I’ve been called a lot of things in my life, but never a quinquagenarian. Until yesterday if someone had called me that, I probably would’ve taken offense to it, but not anymore. 

The following terms cover each age group:

Denarian: Someone age 10 to 19.

Vicenarian: 20-29

Tricenarian: 30-39

Quadragenarian: 40-49

Quinquagenarian: 50-59

Sexagenarian: 60-69

Septuagenarian: 70-79

Octogenarian: 80-89

Nonagenarian: 90-99

Centenarian: 100 and above. 

A couple of notes on the above. I find it interesting that you are called a vicenarian when you’re in your 20s, which is probably when you have the most vices. 

And as a proud quinquagenarian, I find it most interesting and very encouraging that the next stage I get to enter is called a “sexagenarian.” I’m not sure if that’s ironic or not, but I may now know why most of my 60-something-year-old friends walk around with big grins on their faces.  

Check with me in about 10 years and I’ll let you know.