2003-06-25 - 1:14 p.m.
I'm soooooo old...
It’s hot as a mofo outside. I didn’t expect this—it’s central New York, fer cryin’ out loud! It’s not supposed to be humid and gross! But I walked to campus this morning and I wore jeans, like an idiot. By the time I got home, I had to peel those jeans off my poor sweaty fat ass, and I had to put some detergent on my white t-shirt to pre-treat it so I wouldn’t get pit stains. Ewww. But I now have some notebooks and a pretty student ID (I got to approve the pic, and it’s pretty decent), so it was worth it. I also ran into a guy who’s in my program.
Meeting other students makes me realize something very, very odd. There seems to be a huge barrier between older students and younger students. It’s even a language barrier or sorts. Photo Guy is in his early 30s, and he’s worked for years, and he’s admitted to me that he doesn’t understand some of the slang that college students use these days. I got an email from a girl in my program who says she feels “old” at 29. I went out with a guy last night who said that he’s going to grad school so he can avoid working.
It’s all really bizarre to me. I’m not that much older than these people, but I’ve worked for three years. I’ve lived on my own for three years. Living alone, with nice amenities, is not a novelty to me anymore. Going out every night and getting wasted doesn’t appeal to me. I don’t take notes well on a laptop, because I didn’t have a laptop in undergrad. I know what it’s like to interact with people of all ages and backgrounds.
This is appealing to my clique-ish nature, which sucks. I like to associate with big groups of different people, but I like to separate those people. Work friends didn’t mix with chorus friends, for instance. Chorus friends didn’t mix with 3WA friends. In college, theater friends didn’t mix with dorm friends or French class friends, etc. But I have a feeling that the “older” students will have a different kind of bond, and despite myself, I’m looking forward to it.
I’m feeling the burden of this because I have become a kind of cruise director. I’m organizing things, partly because I can’t bear to have anyone else do it and leave me in the lurch. But that means I’m getting out and doing stuff and meeting people and (gasp!) making a positive impression, so all is going well. So far. I guess all that living alone hasn’t made me lose my social-planning skills. Heh.
