Feeling Old

I just returned from my adventure on the Campus of Baylor University. I think I have more stories from this trip to Waco than any other recent trip. Also, I came to a life-changing realization. I'm old.

That's it, plain and simple. In this 22nd year of my life, it hit me for the first time. The feeling of growing up, the understanding that I'm not young anymore. Now, before any of you skip down to the bottom and comment on this, let me explain how this happened. I take you back to last night. I'm in Waco, I'd been invited by Chelsea's brother to play a little Ultimate Frisbee. Now, I've played Ultimate like one time since high school, so I'm a little rusty. I agree to play anyway. When I show up, the game is already going on. I'm assigned to the shirts team and we end up winning (an amazing comeback really, but that's a different story). After the game, we gather as a group and they begin chatting. I stand silent mainly, as I don't really know anybody here. Then a girl addresses me. Gathering from my shirt that I'm an Aggie, she says, "So, do you, like, go to A&M?" Feeling a little uncomfortable being the oldest guy out there, I tell her, "Yep...I Go to A&M."
"Cool! That's where I'm going next year!" She exclaims. "So, whatcha doin in Waco?"
I glance around uneasily as all ears are turned my way.
"Actually, I graduated from college. I'm here for my job..."
"Oh.." She trails off. All of her excitement quickly fades. All eyes still on me as I grow uncomfortable.
"Yeah, I'm a college graduate, an adult. Playing with a bunch of high schoolers," would have been an appropriate reply and those words definately crossed my mind.
The discomfort was eased by the dude next to me telling me that he was a sophomore at ACU. The truth of the matter was I was surrounded by recent high school graduates and first or second year college students. The trend was towards the younger side of things however. The actual situation wasn't as bad as it seemed in my mind, but after I announced I was a college graduate, no one addressed me other than the ACU kid.

Afterwards I thought about it. Did I ever hang out with collge graduates when I graduated from high school? No... Especially not ones I didn't know. That's just weird. Why? Because they were old!