A Musing Post
So I'm off to lecture a group of college students this afternoon. Of course, by "lecture" I mean "talk to," but still.
It sounds so grown up.
Age is funny. The whole time you're growing up, it's always an issue. You know who's older than you, and who's younger. You can't wait to get to a certain age, and then when you do you set your sights on another one anyway. Your first experience of fractions is understanding what it means to be four and a half.
And then, all of a sudden, you're old enough to drive. To vote. To drink. You get out of college, look around, and realize it doesn't matter anymore.
My (offline) friends are all my mom's age. I think they may be a little more conscious of the difference than I am, but it doesn't bother any of us.
Sometimes when we're filling out a form or something, Alex will actually turn and double check with me to make sure he's got his own age right.
And now I'm getting ready to go discuss culture and quilts with a group of people who I still kind of identify with and consider my peers but who, in point of fact, are closer to Julia's age than to mine.
7 comments:
I know how you feel. I joined Peace Corps when I was 31, so now some of my good friends are almost 10 years younger than I am. Plus my husband is 5.5 years younger than I am. Because he's the oldest in his family and I'm the youngest in mine, Shmooie's aunties range in age from 13 to 44 (but a very young, hip 44)!
When my husband and I were still in the "I think I like him" stage, I made fun of him at great length because he wasn't sure how old he was. Fast forward a couple of years and I had the exact same problem. I still have to stop and think about it, just to be sure.
And I am the youngest person at the company where I work. By a pretty solid 10 years.
And now, I'm not so sure what my point was. So I'm going to end now. :)
I really don't feel my age. I remember when I was 20 and how I thought someone who was 42 was a grandma. Now here I am, my 42 year old self, the parent of young girls, and I feel pretty in sync with that category of people, others who are parenting young children, regardless of their age.
And then I have a whole other group of music friends, many of whom are older than me, but I really enjoy spending a lot of time with them, too.
I guess what I want to say is that yes, age mattering evaporates sometime after 20.
I remember when my son told me he wasn't going to live to be 25 because that was o-l-d! This month he will be 39. Bet he doesn't think 25 is old now that he is on the other side.
I know what you mean about feeling younger and young people not seeing you that way. I am shocked when I look in the mirror and don't see that young wife whose living in my heart.
Age is weird, you're right - here I am feeling quite young inside and this strange rather wrinkled woman looks out from the mirror at me.
Plus the SA blog awards are on (come vote for me hint hint!) and most of the blogs are twenty somethings - only one other mommyblogger in sight.
But in the end age differences concertina to nothing when you have a common interest - that's the main thing.
What I see in the mirror I'm used to. It resembles, somewhat, my father, whom I always considered rather good-looking.
But I'm not amused when I see photographs of myself from the side or from the front taken below eye level. Somebody keeps airbrushing in all sorts of under-the-chin bags, wrinkles, etc., not to mention a thinning spot on the crown of my head when viewed from above.
Yuck!
(Oops. Hit the wrong key. The post just above is from me.)
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