How Did I Become the Older Person?

I blinked. I looked around me in amazement and had to blink again. I could swear I just graduated high school.

Well, now let's see. That was approximately eighteen years ago. What a strange thing to realize. I feel like my parent's words are echoing all around me like sonic booms. My parents told me in high school that after graduation the time would become warp speed. They told me not blink. I blinked. I shouldn't have blinked.

Mark Twain is known for saying something like this: At age 14 I couldn't believe how ignorant my father was. At age 21, after seven years had passed, I couldn't believe how much my father had learned in such a short period of time.

I work with adults. I guess you could call them semi-adults. They are all 18 to 22 years of age. What is interesting is that they see me as an older person. I don't feel like an older person. I feel like me, a younger 30-ish person. They tell me I am more like a Dad. Now for all of us in this age range it is a very strange experience.

I remember in the eighties thinking that I grew up in the wrong time. I loved the late 60's and early 70's. The 60's and 70's were my parent's generation. I thought that had to be the greatest music, art, movies, and literature ever created. I couldn't get enough of the hippie movement even if it was near the very end. During the eighties we kids spent a lot of time still latching on to those past times of our parents. I still remember listening with my Dad to Simon and Garfunkel, Carly Simon, and Cat Stevens. This was music handed to us directly from GOD himself. Looking back I know it was more nostalgic to me because of the time I spent with my father listening to the music rather than the music itself. My parents spent the majority of the eighties telling us how we just kept re-creating past trends with a little bit of difference and all past trends just keep coming right back. They told me the world was getting worse and that kids didn't have enough respect for the elders. The kid's work ethics were horrible.

I was young, fit, thin, bright strawberry-blonde hair, muscular, and could run eight miles every day of my life. I thought my dad was wasting his whole life taking naps every afternoon. I could not believe he was throwing his life away. Gosh what a waste. I never understood how young my parents were during those times. They seemed like older people because they were my parents, they had to be older people.

I am older right now than my father was in the eighties. I don't feel that mature, that old. There was break dancing, and neon pants,shoes, and shirts. There was MTV and we were definitely rebels. We were on the cutting edge with personal home computers with floppy discs and CD'S!

I blinked.

My co-workers say I am an older person. They don't invite me to their parties. I am not even remotely interested in being invited to their parties. In fact I worry about some of them making better choices. They say I am more like a Dad. I now have strawberry-blondish-gray-streaks hair. I weigh 50 pounds more than I did when I graduated high school. I think the most spiritual thing a guy can do is take a nap every single afternoon that he can possibly excuse himself from the world. Now MTV hardly ever plays music anymore. My kids love the eighties and sing all the songs and are nostalgic about the greatest music, and movies, and art ever created. Bon Jovi are a blast from the past with their own VH1 Where are they now segment.

I couldn't walk much less run eight miles if I wanted to. I have aches and pains in places I never knew existed and it seems like my parents know a lot more than what I gave them credit for.

I do want to say this. Sometimes the world seems to be getting worse. Kid's just don't have the respect for their elders like they used to when I was growing up. These young people just don't have any work ethics. The cycle continues.

This world is going at warp speed. Don't blink. Believe me. Don't Blink.