The Story Behind the Song

I was thinking about growing older, how we complain about it, kid about it, think, somewhat fantastically, that we might avoid it. I throw those invitations to join A.A.R.P. away before I open them, and I've been doing that for probably ten years now, but then there are some positive things, "silver" linings, if you will, "I know some things today that I wish I had known back then."

I was fiddling around with that line and this song started to take shape. I was thinking about myself at seventeen, holed up in my room listening to Janis Ian, crying over how far I was from those airbrushed pictures in the magazines. I had my daughter in mind, though, when I wrote the verse about men being from another planet; she had just had a bad breakup and young men can be so idiotic when it comes to communication (from a female perspective, of course).

My hair started to turn grey when I was in my mid-thirties. I was going to go "natural" at first - no toxic hair dye for me! That didn't last very long, grey hair makes you look old, and that makes you feel old. I have long been known for refusing to act my age. Since I went back to L'Oreal's cure for looking old, people say I don't look my age either.

As for being as old as you feel in your bones, I had a few years, right after my RA diagnosis, where I felt about 92 (and I was in my forties), but I've met enough people now who are actually in their nineties to know that it really is about how you feel "in your heart and in your mind".

The first time she heard this song, the wonderful songwriter Christine DeLeon told me that she liked the way it came full circle. I do too. You might think, at first listen, that the last verse is trite, or cliche, but I really mean it - and I've lived it. Losing my sister, living with RA, these are the things that taught me that life really doesn't "always go the way you planned", and I am totally serious when I tell you that I fully intend to "do one thing that I love every day I'm alive".

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Older Than I Thought I Was: Music & Lyrics by Karen J. Kamenetsky (2010) 

I woke up this morning and I’m older than I thought I was, I’m older than I ever thought I’d be. 
I looked in the mirror, I said, “Is this even possible, I’m looking back at half a century.” 
And I’ve got bags and I’ve got sags, and I’ve got wrinkles where they didn’t used to be, 

And I’m not the woman I was when I was seventeen. 
And I know some things today that I wish I had known back then, like: 
Nobody has perfect hair, 
You’re more than the clothes you wear, 
And they airbrush all those photos in the magazines. 

I woke up this morning and I’m older than I thought I was, I’m older than I ever thought I’d be. 
I looked in the mirror, I said, “Is this even possible, I’m looking back at half a century.” 
And I’ve got bags and I’ve got sags, and I’ve got wrinkles where they didn’t used to be, 

And I’m not the woman I was when I was twenty-four 
And I know some things today that I wish I had known back then, like: 
Men are from another planet its true, 
They don’t want to talk about their feelings with you, 
And we can’t live without them, but they can’t live without us more. 

I woke up this morning and I’m older than I thought I was, I’m older than I ever thought I’d be. 
I looked in the mirror, I said, “Is this even possible, I’m looking back at half a century.” 
And I’ve got bags and I’ve got sags, and I’ve got wrinkles where they didn’t used to be, 

And I’m not the woman I was when I was thirty-nine. 
And I know some things today that I wish I had known back then, like: 
It’s not over when you find that first grey hair, 
You can refuse to act your age if you dare, 
‘Cause you’re as old as you feel, not in your bones, but in your heart and your mind. 

I woke up this morning and I’m older than I thought I was, I’m older than I ever thought I’d be. 
I looked in the mirror, I said, “Is this even possible, I’m looking back at half a century.” 
And I’ve got bags and I’ve got sags, and I’ve got wrinkles where they didn’t used to be, 

And I’m not the woman I was when I was forty-five. 
And I know some things today that I wish I had known back then, like: 
Life doesn’t always go the way you planned. 
Time slips through your fingers like sand, 
And you should do one thing that you love every day you’re alive. 
And I’m gonna do one thing that I love every day I’m alive. 
I’m gonna do one thing that I love every day I’m alive. 
Yes, I’m gonna do one thing that I love, every day I’m alive. 

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