After injury, movie star voices what every 40+ person feels

Actor Channing Tatum was only 24 when he got his first movie role in “Coach Carter.” From there, he’s starred in “21 Jump Street,” “Magic Mike,” “This Is The End,” “The Hateful Eight” and many other films.

Now he’s 45, and he just shared a post on Instagram with a black-and-white hospital photo.

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Channing Tatum Injury

According to TMZ, the actor suffered a grim separated shoulder injury while skiing. Looking none too happy about his situation, sitting in a hospital gown, he wrote;

“Just another day. Another challenge. This one is gonna be hard. But whatever. Let’s get it in.”

In a published report on nj.com, word is that Tatum had to have his shoulder screwed back into place with lots of medical hardware. So he has to be feeling even more of what he told Variety in September, after a leg injury he suffered last summer while filming “Avengers: Doomsday.”

“It’s not about the pain I feel in the moment. It’s knowing I can’t take this back. And now I know what the next six months of my life will be like. I just hate getting old. In my mind, I’m literally still 30 years old — 26, if I’m honest.”

Ah, and there it is. The fame and the money don’t take away what we all feel over a certain age.

We hate getting old.

And the other universal truth is that we never feel it inside.

I don’t care if you’re in your 40s or 50s, or you're 60s or 70s or beyond. Can’t we all admit inside our heads, inside our hearts, where the physical pain doesn’t touch, don’t we all feel emotionally and mentally much younger?

I remember when my stepdad was turning 75 and him saying how “shocked” he was that he was this age. I don’t know if I ever heard a more sincere voice than when he told us how inside he truly felt no older than 30.

I have to believe it’s true for all of us. There comes a time you don’t quite recognize the person in the mirror. It’s not vanity or denial. It’s that whatever makes us truly ‘us’ whether it’s your soul, your personality, your aura, your mind, however you want to frame it, that part feels unaffected by time, doesn’t it? Your hair grays but not you. Your skin grows lines but not your soul.

I can honestly say inside I feel exactly as I did at 30. Sure, there are responsibilities I have now I didn’t have then, and things I know now I wish I had.

The essence of who we are doesn’t change.

Embrace that. Anyone in New Jersey over 40 feels the power of that. Have a snowball fight. Laugh too loud. Engage in a PDA. Even if you have a leg injury and a separated shoulder, do it. Live from the inside out, not from the outside in. Because your inside is the best part of you, the real you, that will be young forever.