Feeling Old

At what point do we start feeling old? Granted, that's a subjective question - a teenager might feel old compared to a toddler, or an 80 year-old might feel old compared to a 30 year-old - but is there a general age where we first start to feel genuinely old?

After tonight, I can say that I began feeling old at the young age of 24. I say young age because it is exactly that; young. I still have a lot of life to live, but in terms of maturity and outlook, I really am starting to feel old. It wasn't one night that made me feel like this, it was two separate incidents on two separate days that really solidified this feeling.

The first came at the beginning of December, before schools were out for winter break. I was driving from my house to a destination that shall forever be lost to history, when I caught the red light at an intersection next to my former high school. As I was waiting to make a right turn, I kept thinking to myself that I wish these kids would hurry up and cross the street. These kids. I had driven past that high school countless time since graduation and never once thought of the current students as kids. In fact, I had previously considered them and myself to be in the same general age group. However, that was clearly no longer the case. I look at those students and see them as kids; something which I was no longer.

The second moment came tonight, when a friend of mine and I went to a college party. We're both college students, so we should have felt right at home, correct? Wrong. We walked in and instantly felt out of place. I can't speak for him, but I looked at the game of beer pong going on and thought, "I am too old for this." The whole party consisted of games of beer pong and quarters; both excuses to drink. And there was no food. No food! Where I come from, you don't have a party without food! (Yet another sign that this was less a "party" than an excuse to get together and drink.) To me, a party is friends getting together to talk, hang out and have fun; alcohol may be present, but it is not the centerpiece of the gathering. What really secured that this was not my kind of party was that fact that the average age of everyone else was 19 or 20. I have few things in common with guys of that age, and I can't hit on girls of that age without feeling like a pervert. I need to party with people my own age.

I know I'm not old, but sometimes I feel like I'm getting there. And that's OK, because it's a normal part of growing up. It's simply a matter of recognizing when a chapter of your life is over and that it's now time to look forward to the next. I can honestly say I can't wait for the next chapters in my life to begin, so if I have to feel old to get there, I say that's an even trade.