One thing I have wondered, as a younger person - is it ok to say things like "I want to be like you when I'm your age" or similar? Or is that ageist?

I mainly say stuff like that to people who are ageing vibrantly, healthily and with their eccentricities and creativity on full display. Because I want to age like that. It's not about them looking young, it's about them participating so joyously and vibrantly in life.

Example, I saw some older people at a rave, dancing up a storm. I said something like "I'm so glad raving isn't something one grows out of, I want to be like you when I'm your age" and they laughed and said "if you're lucky one day you too will be an older raver". Another person I was inspired by is an ecstatic dancer who is in her 80s. She and her partner have been together 20 years, both dance every day and also are still passionately in love. I said they inspired me and I hoped I would be like them in the future. I hope that wasn't offensive. If it was, is there a way I can communicate these feelings in a way that isn't offensive?

The thing I'm afraid of regarding ageing, is the idea that I could lose my zest for life, my creativity and become a faded shell of myself, waiting to die. A lot of stereotypes of the elderly are like that, and my dad who works in nursing homes often sees old people like that.

So when I see old people who are emphatically not like that it makes me hopeful and excited to age like them rather than to become someone "tired of life" as the stereotype seems to be.