Wait...That Was How Long Ago Now?

One is often reminded of their age in everyday life. Some times in a way that boosts the ego and sometimes in a way that just makes you feel old. It was during one such moment of age-reminding weakness that I made myself a strawberry milk with Nesquik and settled in front of my laptop. Fueled by pink liquid-y goodness, I ponder what it means to feel old. Now, still being under 30 I don’t have much to complain about yet. But that doesn’t mean I can’t feel as though the ever constant time has left an impact on my life since childhood. Because it has. Things I once loved as a child have gone out of style or out of fashion—forgotten by a world advanced by and dependent on technology. Gone are the days of giant brick-sized Gameboys, walk-mans, and dial-up internet. Kids nowadays come out of the womb with an iPad and a Blu Ray player. They have no memory of corded landline phones, cassette tapes, VCRs and walking to school uphill both ways in the snow—just kidding on the last one. It’s not just the last 20 years that have made a significant difference, even in the last 10 years I have noticed how far we have come. Songs from around the time I was born are being played on the oldies station. TV shows and movies from the early 90s are celebrating 20 year anniversaries. It’s enough to make you think, wow, it’s been 20 years since Little Rascals, Dumb and Dumber, and Wyatt Earp (the movie with Kevin Costner in honor of my recent visit to Tombstone). As much as I am in awe of today’s culture in comparison with days long past, I can also appreciate a lot of what we have today. The child I once was would marvel at the computer that can fit in your hand and be used as a phone at the same time. Or, the ability to record live TV and watch it later. The existence of WiFi internet that is making it possible for me to be typing this from my bedroom instead of restricted to a computer desk by an Ethernet cable. Things today’s generation takes for granted and what my generation values. So next chance you get, hand a kid a pen and a cassette tape and ask them how those two items are related. If we’re going to be old, we should at least have fun with it.