I remember how, 15 years ago, there was another writer/political commentator out there who had a similar Twitter handle to mine. Except hers was "Sister Toldja" - without the "h."
We were very different people, to say the least. I was a white conservative anti-feminist, and she was a black woketivist. Occasionally, people would get our handles mixed up, and we'd have to forward the mentions to the appropriate "sister." Though we were on opposite ends of the political spectrum, we generally had friendly interactions over the mix-ups.
@sistertoldja thanks ;-)
— Sister Toldjah 💙 (@sistertoldjah) February 13, 2011
At some point, someone created a "Sister Toldja" Wiki page, which was about her. Though the page (and her Twitter handle) no longer exists (she's gone on to use her real name during media appearances), I remember an entry that was put in there about how "Sister Toldja was not to be confused with Sister Toldjah, a middle-aged conservative blogger..."
I read that at the time and thought, "middle-aged??" I begged to differ. I mean, I was sort of closing in on it, but I had several years left to go. The gray hairs and wrinkles hadn't started to sprout, and I was, for the most part, still feeling (and, according to some very kind people) looking younger than my age.
I've never been super-sensitive about the topic of age, for a few reasons. For starters, when I was a teenager, I had people tell me I looked mature for my age. I thought it was a neat compliment at the time until I realized much later that the men who told me that likely meant it for another reason.
But as I got older (30s and 40s), the opposite started happening. People would tell me I looked younger than my age, which was genuinely a nice thing to say and with no ulterior motive behind it, as far as I knew.
There was only one instance I can recall during that timeframe when someone made me "feel" older than I was: when a flawless 20-something cosmetics store clerk promptly directed me to the "mature" skin care section when I told her I was looking to change up my skincare routine.
Though I feel like, as I've gotten older, I've held my age reasonably well, there are times I look in the mirror and notice a few more grays from the previous day, or another wrinkle or two here and there. Not a huge deal in the scheme of things - I'm thankful that God has allowed me to live as long as I have, but I admit that vanity does creep in from time to time. I think it's just human nature.
But never have I felt more my actual (older and middle-) age than on this very day, when I took a routine trip to the grocery store to pick up a few things for mom and me.
I only had about a dozen items, and decided to use the self-checkout. As I walked up to my register, I noticed some firefighters who were checking out at a couple of nearby registers. I smiled while thinking about the humorous firefighter interaction I'd had a week or so ago after Mom's latest oncology appointment, but I also thought to myself rather wistfully, "Most of these guys are probably young enough to be my son."
After I vainly and carelessly checked my hat to make sure no gray hairs were escaping, I proceeded to place my items on the counter to begin the checkout process. At the same time, one of the grocery store clerks walked over to me and said she wanted to do something to help me with my purchase. I figured she was entering a digital coupon code, so I thanked her for it and then went about scanning my items.
It didn't take me long to scan everything, and once I was done, I pressed the screen for the total. It then factored in (on the screen) the discount that the clerk had put in the system for me. Lo and behold, it was... the senior discount.
Happened today at the grocery store. The clerk scanned something at the self-checkout before I got started. I had no idea it was a senior discount. I'm not a senior, but maybe it was the gray hairs that were sprouting from my hat. ;) https://t.co/e1poVXImu8
— Sister Toldjah 💙 (@sistertoldjah) October 23, 2026
Of course, I had to tell family members and friends about it later, and they all got a chuckle out of it. Looking back, I remember the clerk doing the same thing with several other shoppers who didn't look like they were seniors, so I'm guessing maybe they were just doing it for everyone as a courtesy.
At least that's what my fragile ego would like to think, anyway. ;)
