« someone apparently knows me | Main | commuting vignette #5 - family portrait »
October 02, 2006
Age
I have a habit of letting my hair grow long. It has always grown very fast, but sometimes I just lose track until I realize that, "Gee, I actually have to push the hair out of my eyes." And so it was these past few weeks. Jenn has been bugging me to go to the barbershop, but the only realistic times to do that are on weekends -- and with our usual weekend events, even that is difficult.
As I was trying to comb my hair in a way that was presentable the other day, something caught my eye. I leaned closer to the mirror to look and sure enough, it was a white hair. A really long white hair, right on the top of my head.
Now, I've never considered myself all that old. As a matter of fact, I don't usually think about age. I've always been told that I act younger than I actually am, and I took that as a good thing. Of course, its not funny to my sister whenever someone mistakes her for being the "older" sister (I have to admit, that shocks me too). But when I think about it, I generally spend my time around people who are younger than I. Jenn is 2 years younger than me. Most of our college friends, with a few exceptions, are 1-2 years younger. I could seek refuge in spending time with my high school crowd, where I am one of the youngest, but we don't usually see them all that much.
Its just funny to think about my actual age and what that means, or rather what its supposed to mean. Am I supposed to act like an adult, calmly and maturely? Society today seems to have undergone a redefinition of adulthood. For example, its more or less ok for adults to play video games now. That's partly because the video game industry needs adults to pay for the near $500 game systems that are coming out. The affluent American economy has also encouraged the adults of my generation to indulge in the purchase of "toys" -- or basically, that which is unneccessary for living, but which is purely for enjoyment.
That doesn't sound like the adults that I grew up with, the serious ones who went to work, put food on the table, read the newspaper for enjoyment/knowledge, watched the news, etc. Sometimes its hard to think that I'm one of them now, I'm an adult. I go to work every day, I wear a shirt and slacks. I've got mouths to feed and someone that I'm supposed to start teaching how to live a good life, at least as soon as she understands me (that will likely be never). When did this all happen?
All I know is that now I'm actually watching when those Just for Men hair color commercials come on the TV.
Posted by spoof747 at October 2, 2006 09:37 AM
Comments
dude, you're so lucky to be finding your first white hair NOW! i started growing handfuls of whites since i was 15 yrs old, basically for half of my life already! and no, i still don't act like an adult either just because i'm older with white hair. >=P although i'm coloring my hair on a semi-regular basis just like my mom. boohoo...
Posted by: ivy at October 3, 2006 09:19 PM