Feeling Old and Outdated

It's hard to really pinpoint the first time you start feeling old. One of the first warning signs starts flashing when your body takes an extra day or two longer to recover from an afternoon of sports. That warning light gets a little bit brighter when your same body can't do what you swore you could do a year ago.

Even if you're able to ignore the physical effects of getting older, it's a lot harder to deny the glaring signs when you interact with students 5-6 years younger than you. Case in point: I recently went to a free Swing Dance lesson on UT campus. Each time I met a new partner, we would exchange pleasantries and we would start asking questions as we practiced the moves.

"So what year are you?"
Ummm, I just recently graduated actually. I'm workin in the area.

"Oh that's cool, how old are you?"
How old do I look? (hoping desperately to switch subjects)

"Oh I don't know... 21?"
*nervous laughter* yeah that's pretty close. imactuallytwentyfive. Have you figured out what you wanted to study?

*uncomfortable look* Yeahhh... I'm thinking about X....

Most of the time when I meet undergrads and they find out how old I am, they always go, "Wow! You look like you're 18! I never would have guessed!" I guess that's a compliment, but it still feels weird when you realize they were just born in the late 1990s when Ace Ventura was funny.

Even things I used to hang my hat upon are no longer cutting edge. I recently saw all the videos that the Ann Arbor Undergrad Lifegroups made and wow... they are amazing. They were incredibly well planned, well shot, and well edited. Everything about them put my creations to shame.

It's a depressing feeling when you are no longer able to hang with the next generation, especially in something you used to take pride in. Maybe that's why old people always talk about "becoming mature". It gives them an excuse for not getting owned in the things they used to do all the time.