You don't ever stop feeling like 26 (I'm 62 this year). It is a bit of a problem because physically the body wears out and the aches and pains and lack of energy and weird stuff happening that didn't use to happen and that doesn't "fix" can get to you but mostly it is about balancing all that, so it is not "you" who changes but just the job of balancing that does.

I started work on a second college degree in 2001 and got that degree in 2007 and went on to grad school. I think you will see as you get older and have had many more experiences that a lot of things become a lot easier as other stuff becomes harder (that's what I mean about balance).

Stuff that puzzles, repulses, whatever, you about older people will literally make more sense when you get there and be all right. I wish I could get back to my 29 year old self (who had to get braces on her teeth and use her 401K to pay for them :-) and tell her everything will be okay.

The hardest thing for me is running out of "room" :-) I've done most of what I have ever wanted to do and/or don't want what I did before. Too, the things that use to be fun or that I use to enjoy I often don't literally have the energy or the interest without being depressed about it. I "understand" what I am going through because I can remember my parents and grandparents and now many things make sense to me that did not before but what to "do" about these negative-seeming types of situations is not so easy for me to figure out with my 26 year old brain