On feeling older rather than younger

Today I felt a little bit older. Or perhaps, the reality of my age hit home just a bit stronger. No, it wasn't my birthday. Perhaps a flow-on effect from having my husband (who is not much older than me) turn 40 last week?

Two of my sons, one running, the other cheering!

This morning we arose early, 5.30! By about 6.40 we were in the CAJ car park (US=parking lot). Our 12 y.o. had another cross-country meet at that same amazing US Base Recreation Area. This time, however, I was a driver. My husband had been requisitioned into driving one of the school vans, leaving our van with me. Thankfully I could follow him (it is so easy to get lost in Japanese cities). What made me feel old wasn't the five middle-school and younger boys in the back. It was the Year 12 girl in the seat next to me. 

She'd just returned from the high school's School Without Walls week, where the Year 12s and 10s visited tsunami devastated areas and helped with the ongoing clean-up. (The principal wrote a post here about what they achieved. I hope the link works, it is a Facebook note.) So she was pretty tired, which made two of us. So, we didn't have much conversation during the more-than-an-hour we spent sitting side-by-side.

This gave me plenty of time to reflect on how long it is since I was her age. Plenty of time to realise that I probably have more in common with her mother than I do her. Her mum teaches at CAJ, like my husband. She has four boys; all at CAJ and all younger than my passenger. Many memories of my Year 12 are still quite clear in my mind, so in some ways I don't feel much older than her. But in reality, a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then.

All of this reflecting was compounded by watching these young people run energetically around this challenging course. Something I once could do (but have no desire to pick up again, never really did like long-distance running).

Add to that another young lady (this one nine years old) who confronted me with this question,

"What was different when you were growing up?"

After I clarified what she was looking for, I answered,

"No widespread computer use-age and even when I did get a second-hand one in my house it was a clunker that you had to type programming language into to get it to do anything. None of this, 'Click here' technology and no internet."

"Also we had no videos, so if you missed a programme, you missed it. No mobile phones. . . "

"NO MOBILE PHONES???" she shrieked.

"Yes, really, no mobile phones. My dad owned an electrical business and my mum used a two-way radio to communicate with him when he was out on the job."

Shocking, isn't it, how much has changed in my short life. And that is just touching the surface! This photo was circulating on Facebook recently (I tested the question out on my 12 y.o. and he didn't know, but then neither did my husband first figure it our either!). The picture reminded me that I only bought my first CDs in 1995! Now we have no tapes left in our house as our last tape recorder died last year.

So, maybe I am a little older than I think I am. I certainly don't recover from ________ (fill in the blank) as fast as I used to!

But hang on, I'm not that old, not really . . .

Alas, the dilemma continues.