Old Enough

For some reason, I feel like I should be starting each post with the words "Dear Diary"! I kept a journal, on and off, for many years, starting in elementary school through graduate school. It amazes me that scores of people now have their own online "diaries" out there, and many of them available for anyone to read. Whatever happened to the notion of the diary with the lock and key?! Incidentally, I am actually old enough to have had a diary (from Hallmark) with a brass lock and key, which made me feel so important when I was 9 years old!

Speaking of being "old" . . . turning 35 has been such a shock to my entire system-- physically, emotionally, etc. Turning 30 was really kind of a nothing, simply a continuation of my free-wheeling 20s. But I really hit the wall with #35! Beyond the physical markers that I've passed this year on the gameboard of Life, I find even more surprising the little cultural markers along the way too. For example, just yesterday I realized after reading a snippet in the paper about the new 'Superman' movie that I am actually old enough to remember both the 1st 'Superman' movie from the 70s as well as the remake. Then I realized that I am old enough to have lived through 2 releases of totally different 'Batman' movies (Batman 1989 and Batman 2005) as an adult!

Now that I am 35, I have also found myself looking back at my childhood quite frequently with a flood of nostalgia. Part of this is because I am a Mom, and truly do relive aspects of my childhood each and every day with my girls. Part of it is also because looking backwards can be so much fun, and sometimes quite revealing. I have even found myself searching online for obscure 70s phrases and themes that I remember from when I was young. 'Battle of the Planets', anyone?! That's the thing about getting 'old' too--when you look backwards, everything is a little bit hazier the further back you go, so I find myself trying to 'sharpen' my memories a bit by delving into them. I'm not entirely sure why this is important to me, but it probably has something to do with turning 35!