Age milestone.
April 8th, 2006 | by john |Just a few days ago I realized that I am now part of the group that others may consider simply as … old. I was running some errands when I decided to stop by a Jack-in-the-Box to give it a try for the first time. When I entered, I saw a bunch of bookbags sprawled across the floor and a group of high school guys ordering their food up front. I got in line as a group of I-am-a-blonde-cheerleader type of high school girls came in; talking so fast in their feverishly high-pitched voices that I was partially hoping that they were european and speaking another language. I looked at both of these group of high schoolers and thought to myself how immaculate they looked in the way they dressed and how immature they behaved (immature being a completely relative term).
Then I observed myself; I was wearing my Tech cap that I bought during FASET in the Fall of 2001 which I overused so much that now the bill of the cap was frizzled in the front and the buildup of the sweat and dirt could be seen as stains. I had been lazy so I haven’t shaved that morning. So I had the five o’clock shadow of a mustache and a thin patch on my chin. My laziness that morning also prompted me to put on the first articles of clothing I could get my hands on which happen to be a white partially wrinkled t-shirt that read ‘Yellow Jackets’ on it (yes, I do wear Tech clothing proudly even in North Carolina) and a pair of jeans I forgot to get washed the day before.
It just seemed like these high schoolers were thrown by my tattered appearance because they half expected me to be carrying a bookbag on my back and pulling out crumpled dollar bills from somewhere deep inside my pockets like they were. Instead, I looked like I’d just gotten up and walked over to get some fast food with an American Express card. Prior to this point, I thought that I would assign myself to the same age generation as today’s high school students thinking that I could still relate to them somehow. Afterwards, I realized that I am now part of the generation that I would have labeled as old back when I was a high schooler.
I think it is a milestone when you personally realize that you are no longer a part of a generation that you thought you belonged.
