Old before my time...

I realized today, sitting patiently in my overly small car while waiting on my banana-strawberry smoothie that would eventually see more of the sidewalk than my stomach, that I have become old. Yet the only people who would consider me old are those people that are under the age of 10. They don't realize that 26 is young. My body doesn't realize it either, with its creaky knees and random ailments that only old, rich people are supposed to get.

I am not old in the way years would make someone such. I am old because I've realized a few things that, just by realizing them, make me that way.

Months ago I was speaking with a friend who is actually old - 34! - when he unearthed a discovery about me. The discovery is that I apparently don't like most teenagers. Why? They've got bad attitudes. Not all of them, of course, but a lot of them. And I also envy them because I sometimes wish I was back in High School myself and that age again.

The worst, however, is the fact that I hate the music they listen to. That's right, I've said it. My parents were right; nothing good does come on the radio anymore.

Kids, and I mean kids, seem a lot bolder than they did "in my day". When I was young and I saw someone barreling down on me in a car I would take my "Hungry, Hungry Hippo" out of the road so they wouldn't mow me down. These days I'm lucky if the kids don't try and take my wallet while threatening to jab my eyes out with the surgical tool from the "Operation" game.

To be fair, if I hit a kid with my car, it'd hurt my car more than the child.

I think the main trigger of this whole realization is that everyone seems to be having children. It didn't hit me too much when people started getting married for whatever reason, but now that six people I know are pregnant, it's starting to hit me. Three of my ex-girlfriends are having kids (not mine, let's get that clear) which is wild. My first love from when I was 15/16 is not only 28 years old now, which blows my mind, but she's having a baby soon.

In addition to babies, people are just progressing in life. Progression is a great thing mind you, but still somewhat surreal. My second love I met when she just started school to become a surgical vet which is a long road as you might imagine. I was speaking with her a while back when she mentioned this is her last year. I know it doesn't seem like a short amount of time for her, but to me it feels as if it was just the other day that she was telling me for the first time what she was going to do with her life. I clearly remember thinking, "we'll all be dead by then". Yet here we are. I imagine when I say "already?!" to her that she is filled with the same murderous fire that my pregnant female friends are when they have their child and I say the same to them.

I keep thinking I might be having mid-life crisis but that means I'll have lived a pretty short life indeed. If this is the case, it's time to start making things happen. The real question is; now that I'm old, when do I start feeling grown-up?