Old-y McOldins

I drove by the high school here in Bartlett yesterday and the sign out front read: "Class of 2006 Registration Starts ____". It gave the exact date but I couldn't get past the Class of 2006 part. You see, I graduated in 1996. Ten years ago. I remember a time when I couldn't imagine talking about people I knew and things I did ten years ago simply because that would put me at about age three. Now not only can I reminisce about people I knew a decade ago, I've also probably forgotten many of their names.

When I was seventeen or so, I always felt very old. Well, I felt older than most of the people around me at least. Steph and I used to joke that we were really sixteen going on thirty (and this was totally way before that lame movie starring Jennifer Garner with the similar name.) The difference now (aside from the fact that in hindsight, even though I felt older at the time I really was in fact, a complete baby) is that when we joked about being old, we were doing just that: joking.

I know, I know, twenty-seven is not old. But driving by that high school, for the first time in my life I did not think to myself, "Hey, I'm not really that much removed from them." Because I'm not anymore. I'm actullay a full-fledged, card-carrying ADULT and maybe I'm just silly but I'm finally realizing it. I see high school age kids walking around and instead of saying to myself, "Wow, a few years ago I was totally just like them," I'm thinking, "Does that girl's mother actually buy her shorts that are that short?" Instead of relating and feeling hip I'm shaking my head and looking on reproachfully. I mean, when I was in school people didn't have cell phones or computers or low-rise jeans. Nobody I knew knew had heard of the internet, much less had their own personal weblog. THERE WAS NO REALITY TV, PEOPLE. How I can I possibly relate to the youth of today??? I can't. And I don't want to really. Because I'm a grown-up now. A grown-up who reads Harry Potter and adores Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but a grown-up nonetheless.

P.S. Tonight I'm buying tickets to the Lyle Lovett show at Ravinia this month. Can we say it again all together? OLD!