On getting older

Today's 100 words:

I woke up with a tingling left hand and a crick in my neck, and although I know that both are merely the result of a fitful night's sleep, I can't help but also think of them as harbingers of age. I'll turn forty in August, and sometimes I have "I can't believe it" moments when I think of that milestone. It's not that I consider forty old, but it seems unreal that the eighteen-year-old I used to be--the one starting college and beginning her life--could already have had that many birthdays. Time passes so fast.