Reelin’ in the years

Creepy. That is truly, honestly the only word that even comes close to accurately describing the experience I had over Thanksgiving break. \nMy mom, my sister, my brother and myself visited relatives in Chicago, and for once, I wasn’t the one being plagued by the dreaded “What do you want to do with the rest of your life?” question. Instead, every three seconds, great uncle such-and-such would ask my brother, who is a junior in high school, where he was planning on going to college. Even worse, my sister is a senior in college, so as soon as Random Relative X finished with the typical “Hi, how are you?” pleasantries, he or she would immediately ask her what jobs she was applying for.\nMyself, I simply told relatives that I will be in graduate school for the rest of my life, which seemed to satisfy them. Still, I know in my heart that no one can stay in college forever – although there are probably some doctoral students who will dispute me on this one – and it absolutely freaks me out to see my friends and relatives doing the whole “moving on” thing. The point of this whole story is that, when it comes down to it, even college students can’t avoid the truth: We’re old!\nThis realization has come to many of my friends and me recently, as we see pictures of our high school classmates with husbands, wives and babies. Seriously, can they do that? We’re just kids, right? \nWhat’s even weirder is going on Facebook and realizing that there are people in college who were born in 1990. And kids who were born in 2000 are already making their way through elementary school. Somehow, it seems like they should still be in diapers. \nWhen we turn 16, we get free reign of the road. When we turn 18, we get to buy lottery tickets. When we turn 21, we get to go to Kilroy’s – legally, that is. What landmark birthdays do we have left after that? What lies between 21 and getting our AARP cards?\nI am not entirely sure why this scares us so much, but I would venture to guess that the uncertainty of what next year will bring is what’s been getting under all of our skins. As much as I was in disbelief that I now have cousins having kids and climbing the corporate ladder, over Thanksgiving break, it was somewhat comforting to see my older relatives – some of whom are pushing 90 – who have all aged gracefully, and who seemed very content to be surrounded by their family during the holiday.\nSo before you get out your cane and go to Target to buy wrinkle cream, calm down, take a look around and realize that whether you have your life planned out or not – even if you are graduating this month and are still clueless – everyone grows up eventually, and apparently it’s not too terrible, either.\nThat said, relax, survive exam week, get the hell out of here and have a wonderful break!