Getting Older (and Wiser)
Saturday was a blast from the past...and it was a little unsettling. My beautiful 17-year-old cousin had a starring role in her (and my former) high school production of Peter Pan. So being the good family member that I am, I drove down to Chattanooga on Saturday to see it.
Just walking through the doors of the auditorium--and smelling the all-too-familiar smell--gave me chills. Not much had changed about the place, but I'd changed so much since I'd last been there.
The last GPS spring musical I saw was with my high school sweetheart our senior year. I remember feeling so old and superior sitting in that auditorium, just weeks away from graduation. The world was spread before us. We knew everything. Nothing could touch us.
It was so odd to sit there again on Saturday, waiting for the show to start, and look around at all the current students. I remember how old and cool I felt at that time--but these self-conscious teens were not matching up to my inner image. Did I really used to look like that? Did I honestly swoon over these pimply faced pubescent boys with disheveled hair and torn-up New Balances?
My first thought was that kids just get younger and younger every year. And then it hit me--no, we just get older and older. Eighteen-year-olds will always look the way they do, it's just our perception of them that changes.
You can worry yourself to death about getting older and the fact that kids who look 13 are zooming past you in souped up cars...or you can just be happy in whatever stage you're in. Every age has good and bad points. It's up to you to focus on the good.
Because although I envy those high-schoolers their fresh-faced innocence, I'd rather have my self-confidant, drama-free self any day.
Just walking through the doors of the auditorium--and smelling the all-too-familiar smell--gave me chills. Not much had changed about the place, but I'd changed so much since I'd last been there.
The last GPS spring musical I saw was with my high school sweetheart our senior year. I remember feeling so old and superior sitting in that auditorium, just weeks away from graduation. The world was spread before us. We knew everything. Nothing could touch us.
It was so odd to sit there again on Saturday, waiting for the show to start, and look around at all the current students. I remember how old and cool I felt at that time--but these self-conscious teens were not matching up to my inner image. Did I really used to look like that? Did I honestly swoon over these pimply faced pubescent boys with disheveled hair and torn-up New Balances?
My first thought was that kids just get younger and younger every year. And then it hit me--no, we just get older and older. Eighteen-year-olds will always look the way they do, it's just our perception of them that changes.
You can worry yourself to death about getting older and the fact that kids who look 13 are zooming past you in souped up cars...or you can just be happy in whatever stage you're in. Every age has good and bad points. It's up to you to focus on the good.
Because although I envy those high-schoolers their fresh-faced innocence, I'd rather have my self-confidant, drama-free self any day.
posted by Rachel at 4:10 PM
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