Age is a number...right?

I wonder if I'd be let into Neverland. No, seriously. What is the requirement? Their age limit, is it chronological or psychological? Though I've passed childhood and adolescence, I'm not old, exactly. Though, I am the oldest that I've ever been. It's just that the term, old, seems to be relative, doesn't it?

I am twice as old as some of my students. It is difficult for them to imagine being as old as me, just as it  is difficult for me to truly imagine a 64 year old Shannon - she seems so old. Yet, I also see my mother, heading into her own 6th decade of life, and she doesn't seem old to me. I know she loathes saying she's in her 60's, but really, if you met her, you'd know, she's not old.

How does one measure old anyway? The rest of the world - those around me - tend to remind me that I do not, in fact, refrain from aging. Sometimes it is in the profound: someone I used to babysit having a baby herself. Sometimes it in the silliness: the new "heartthrob" who is 22 looks like he's 12.

There are times I forget I'm 32. I forget that I have now been out of school (negating college) longer than I was in it. I forget that the 90's were more than a decade ago. I forget that my metabolism has indeed changed - well, I forget as I'm eating the ice cream, not so much when I pull on my jeans.

Out of all the things I unintentionally forget, there's one thing that I need to be more diligent in erasing from my mind: the idea of who I am "suppose" to be by a certain age. There are things I haven't experienced yet that I thought I would. But, you know what? There are so many more things that I have experienced that I didn't even know to dream about when I was younger, and that's pretty dang cool. So bring on "the old," in all it's wisdom, chaos, wrinkles, joy, experience, disillusionment, and adventure.


Still, that Neverland thing would be pretty fun too.