I Am Officially O-L-D, OLD!

I realized something really kind of shocking this weekend. I am no longer one of the "young people" at family get-togethers. I am officially one of the adults, which by association also makes me officially old. This shocking revelation came to me when I was telling my two nieces and my sister-in-law about the circumstances surrounding my husband's marriage proposal.

I met my darling Jason in art school in a web design class. I admired his incredible height and commanding presence all quarter long and finally on the last day of class he noticed me. It was St. Patrick's Day and we ended up going to a bar with some of our classmates to celebrate the end of finals. After closing down the bar and heading to Denny's for a hearty breakfast, we parted ways. Before leaving he gave me his cell phone number. I found this odd because back then, guys still asked for a girl's phone number, and it wasn't a forgone conclusion that everyone owned a cell phone. Usually you only had a cell phone if you were really important and need it for work, if you had money to burn, or if you were sneaking around on your wife. Why didn't he just ask for my number? Why didn't he give me his work or home number? So, I assumed that he was married and I didn't call him. I mean, really, I didn't need that kind of complication in my life. As it turns out, he had gone back to school after being discharged from the Air Force and he was staying with friends until he graduated. I realize now, years later, that he didn't ask for my phone number because I could have said "no" or given him a fake one.

Now, you are probably trying to figure out how this would make me feel old. As I am telling the story to my nieces, ages 20 & 22, they are staring at me like I'm crazy. "Aunt Wynna, why did you think that he was married when he gave you his cell number?!" So it dawned on me that they have never known a time when kids didn't have their very own cell phones attached to their heads at all hours of the day and night. It aged me considerably to have to explain that "back then" not everyone had a cell phone and we didn't use them constantly like we do now. I don't think I even knew what texting was back then...it might not have even been available yet.

Now that I sit at the computer writing in my little blog, I realize that this is exactly what my mom must have felt like when she told me about when she was a little girl and her father brought home the very first color television in their town. Her father worked at RCA in New York City so they were able to get one before they were really out on the market and affordable for everyone. I remember being totally astounded that she actually had a black and white television and that she was alive when they invented color technology. She might as well have told me that her father was Thomas Edison and that she was there when he invented the light bulb.

How strange is it that you spend the entirety of your youth wishing you were grown up and once you get your wish all you want is to be young, innocent, and responsibility-free? My mom warned me not to wish my childhood away, but as with everything in life, perspective is everything and when you are a kid that is something that you don't have in abundance. So, at the age of 31, I am officially old. I've been welcomed to the club.