Thursday, March 30, 2006

Things that make you feel old

My birthday is coming up. I'm going to be 21; therefore I will be old enough to smoke, drink, gamble, vote, join the army, drive, get married, or be executed. I am also getting ready to graduate in the fall, if all goes according to plan. I feel very old, for a variety of reasons. Here are some, which you can peruse if you have a fondness for feeling ancient:

1. Thinking longingly of your childhood 9 o'clock bedtime.

2. Discovering that you now understand why your parents hated 5 am cartoons and loved naps

3. Realizing that you should start worrying about your blood pressure

4. Watching your friends and acquaintances get married

5. Hearing people refer to you as a "woman" (hey, I'm still a girl!)

6. Visiting your old elementary school

7. Talking to people who have no living memory of Bob Dole vs. Bill Clinton

8. It's going to be five years since September 11.

9. When I graduate I'm going to have to find work. By which I mean an actual, real job, not a college-kid-home-for-the-summer job.

10. It's been six years since Cardinal O'Connor died.

11. Remembering what it felt like ten years ago when you were ready to turn eleven. ("Geez! This is so slow! I'll never be 13!")

Ehhhh... I feel like I need to be carbon-dated...

I'd like to be more like the Church, who, as St. Augustine says, is "ever ancient and ever new." :)

2 comments:

  1. Actually, I believe you were eligible for execution at 16 or 17, depending on the state where your crime was comitted ;)

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  2. I know, unfortunately :( Although I'm not sure, I thought I heard we were making some progress at the Supreme Court on the "execution of minors" issue.

    *Note to readers: My opposition to the death penalty is prudential, ie, I don't consider execution to be neccesary in modern society. But the death penalty is NOT intrinsically evil, in my opinion.

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