WALLACE: Age is a relative thing

By Amy Wallace/wallacea@gnnewspaper.com
The Tonawanda News

May 14, 2008 11:02 pm

— I am going to be 37 this summer. There, I said it. And depending on where you are on the spectrum of life, 37 may seem really young, really old or somewhere in the middle.
I have actually been having some issues with my age as of late. To me, 37 or even 36 for that matter, feels really old.
Now it’s not like I am not where I want to be at this point in my life. I am married for almost 10 years, I have two beautiful children, a house, two cars and am well established in my career. I am living the dream suburban life. But I wish I was still in my 20s for some reason, it just “sounds” better I guess. But at the same time, I wouldn’t want to be starting a family in my early 20s either.
I want to look and feel how I did in my teens and 20s but with the wisdom and knowledge I have acquired in my 30s. Is that asking too much?
I can’t figure out if it is that I am getting old or just feeling old because I am having trouble relating to my “peers.” Most likely the latter as the majority of my co-workers are a good 10-plus years younger than I am. In fact, the last two companies that I have worked for I felt a definite generation gap.
How do you not feel old when colleagues are telling you about how they graduated from college in 2004, when you were pregnant with your second child and in your early 30s then or when they say they were 8 in 1994, the year you graduated from college?
Maybe you can blame it on pop culture references. Sure, let’s go with that. I once tried to reference the television show “Party of Five” with a co-worker. She said she never saw it and of course I had to ask why not? Well her answer wasn’t because she didn’t like it or because she worked late but because “my parents didn’t let me watch it because I was too young.”
If you can remember when MTV not only aired its first video “Video Killed the Radio Star,” but also played actual music videos, you are a child of the 80s and subsequently now old.
Remember when Madonna was a scandalous pop star who pushed the envelope instead of the quasi-British mother of three and family woman? Remember when Michael Jackson thrilled you with “Thriller” and didn’t just creep you out with allegations of child molestation. Tom Cruise was flying high in “Top Gun” and “Risky Business” instead of flying off couches on Oprah and going on a personal crusade for scientology and against psychiatry.
I remember watching the Space Shuttle Challenger lift off from home because I was out sick from school that day. My class along with classrooms throughout the country watched in horror and disbelief as it blew up before our eyes. Many of my colleagues were not even born yet or were still in diapers when that happened.
I had sea-monkeys, wore Valley-Girl T-shirts and could name every member of the “Brat Pack.” I wore Jordache jeans, acid-washed of course, and used half a can of AquaNet hairspray on my feathered and yes, permed, hair. Prince was in “Purple Rain,” Duran Duran was my first concert and Jon Bon Jovi was a god! It was a great time to be alive!
I guess if being a child of the 80s means I’m getting old then so be it. I wouldn’t trade growing up in that time period for anything.
Night City Editor Amy Wallace’s column appears every Thursday. Contact her at wallacea@gnnewspaper.com.

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