Growing Old-ish

I'm starting to feel my age a little bit.  Now, before anyone older than me takes exception to that statement, I'll put your fears to rest: Yes, I know I'm still in my mid-20s and that I'm still technically a young adult.

Still, there were a number of moments over the past week that made me feel not-so-young.  One such moment came when one of my Juniors mentioned that SHE felt old working as a TA in a 5th grade classroom.  The Juniors are 10 years younger than me.  When I was their age, they would have been in 1st grade.  While I realize that their saying they feel old is about as ridiculous as my saying I feel old must sound to people 10 years older than me, it still does boggle my mind that these students of mine have students that they themselves are responsible for.  Students who make them feel "old".  The ripple effect of this whole thing makes me feel like I need a hip replacement, false teeth and one of those clippers that trims nose and ear hair.

Oh, and then Cross Country makes me feel really old.  I've got a bunch of 6th graders this year.  This current crop of 6th graders would've been born in 2000-2001, approximately.  There are several people I went to school with who dropped out of school and had children that year and the year after.  Granted, that was not the norm by any means, and most of my former classmates who have children either have infants or toddlers (and a majority don't even have kids yet), but the fact is, there are still people my age, people I know, who are the parents of 6th graders (or just a little younger).

When I started teaching, I thought it was amusing that so many of my students were around the same age as my sister, who was still in high school at the time.  What a drastic jump this is, though.  It simultaneously makes me realize how unready I'd be for parenthood and also makes me realize that I cannot put off thinking about dating, marriage and children forever.

26 never felt so old until now.