18 January 2007

If 40 Is The New 30, 25 Must Be The New 15

One of my oldest friends is getting married in the spring of '08. And I'm thrilled! I must be growing up or something because I'm not sure I've ever been this happy because someone else was happy. I've had this stupid grin on my face for three days now.

It does make me wonder, though, if there will ever come a time when the idea of marriage doesn't feel like dress up. I remember asking my mom a couple of years ago when she had truly felt like an adult. If I recall correctly, she said that bringing home your own child helped, but that in some sense she still felt like the 17-year-old living in her parents house and dating my dad.

When I was in high school, I guess I just imagined that I would feel like an adult by the time I was 24 (and a half!). Like somewhere in college, perhaps at graduation, there would just be this schism, and I would come out the other side knowing how to...decide on finance terms for my car and light the pilot light and deal with frustation sans tears and stuff like that.

It didn't really work like that though. I can tell that I'm more mature, certainly, and I often realize how much I've relaxed since I was a child (I know it usually happens the other way, but most of you didn't know me as a child...). But inside, closer to the surface at some times than others, there's still that same 12-year-old I used to know. Or be. Or something.

(How my mom's inner child got five years on mine, I'll never know)


Quote of the day:

J: Hello?
Me: Hey, want to go see some country music?
J: Yeah, but I'm in the middle of a freezer emergency. Can I call you back?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice post (and I'm dying to know which old friend is getting married). To be honest, I'm not sure my inner child had 5 years on yours when I was 24 or even 24-and-a-half. I had to have been at least 40 by the time you asked me that question (and was probably even older). Evidently, inner children keep aging, too - just at a much slower rate.

Anonymous said...

I finally feel like getting married isn't like playing dress up and that makes things far more scary