Monday, January 17, 2011

Crotchety

I'll be 40 years old next month. Yep, the big four oh. I have to admit, I have not felt "old" until very recently. Lately though, I am reminded of my age often. Today, a mom at a playgroup said something about "like when you were 15 and IMing and your parents came in and you covered the screen with your hand". Ummmm, when I was 15, we had computer lab in school where we would program in basic a little face that smiled. We did not have cell phones, computers in our homes, maybe not even cordless phones yet. We did have what seemed to be a really exciting computer game called pong that we could play on our television downstairs. I now know that is it not an exciting game. Tetris and centipede, which I loved are totally boring as well. But we made due with the technology we had - it was kind of cool learning about computers are they were being developed from tremendous servers taking up rooms and rooms to the desktops that actually took up your whole desk.

I went to college with a word processor that everyone on my floor used for their papers. I had no email until I was in my 20's. I had a cell phone eventually, and a pager, then a blackberry. I got connected, which in some ways, made me disconnected. It became easier to shoot an email that make a phone call. It was easier to call from my cell while I was involved in something else than take the time to sit and talk on the phone with someone important. I'm thinking that as I get older, the need to connect is greater and the need for gadgets is less. I find it horribly rude when people check their email or text on their phones while they are talking with others face to face. I am "that girl" who will not use a cell phone while I am driving under any but the most dire circumstances and who gets really irate with the distracted drivers texting away as they drift into my lane.

So I am feeling a little old and crotchety, but I am facing 40 and looking forward to the changes it will bring. I know I can learn something from these young women I spend so much of my time with and I hope my years will have something to bring to them as well.

2 comments:

Brann...it's good for you. said...

Great post, Laurie. :)

Laurie said...

Hey A - you are a young woman but not the kind that is clueless and annoying to me right now - does that work for you? :)