Wednesday 18 June 2008

Gracefully


I had a very strange experience this weekend, one that's taken me a few days to process.

I was at a baby shower.

Not a thing I'm a fan of, and not my first, but that wasn't the odd part.

As I walked into the kitchen when I first arrived and looked around the room, it was the first time I've ever noticed that I'm older. That "we" are older.

Now, granted, most of the other women there were five (or sometimes ten) years older than me, but still. These women looked mature. Like they'd lived. They were all attractive, happy, well-dressed women, but it really struck me that we weren't nineteen anymore.

Not only that, we weren't anywhere near.

It was like entering a whole other world and not one I'm sure I want to have entered.

My peers are no longer the younger generation and it's an utterly disturbing realization.

We're nowhere near old, mind you, but we're not young anymore. And these women? With their babies and toddlers, or their two kids left at home with their husbands? Are no longer carefree.

It really shook me, looking around and seeing their faces and if you haven't gone through a similar experience? You will. It's odd.

House parties turn into dinner parties turn into wedding showers turn into baby showers turn into...... I don't know yet.

And I didn't just get my driver's license, even though it feels like it.