Fotzlid

While at work today, I was discussing the lack of communication going on that day with a co-worker. Another example was pointed out to me and I said "WTF?"
At that point, our 18 year old secretary asked if i knew what that meant, to which i replied that I did as i spend an inordinant amount of time online. Her reply was that she had never heard "an older person" use that phrase before.

I turn 45 in a month but I don't consider myself old by any means. Then I realized that, to her, I am old.
(I actually felt bad for her as the rest of the staff, who are all closer to my age, razzed her for a few minutes en masse.)

What was your last reality check?

to the twentysomethings on this board, it may not seem like much of a reality check but wait, your day will come.

Willravel

I have seniority over people much older than you in my work, and they are all more than up on internet culture. 18 year olds are usually quite niave, anyway.

My wake up call was realizing that if I get into Berkeley in 2009, I would likely be close to 30 when I finish my MA and pass the bar.

Manic_Skafe

45?? You probably reek of icy hot and geritol....

My last reality check came when I realized that 22 is way too young to stick with a job I hate and risk serious lung damage simply because it pays well.

__________________
"Porn is a zoo of exotic animals that becomes boring upon ownership." -Nersesian

Plan9

Yeah, your first mistake was listening to an 18 year old at the workplace. She's probably less than 3 years outta underwear that sport logos on the ass.

...

It's okay, Fotzlid... we might be younger than you, but we're still cranky old bastards on the inside and that's what counts most, right?

...

I realize I'm "older" every day when I wake up and go to various classes and sit down next to a kid that's the better part of a decade younger than me.

I get a lot more out of college than they do because I had to work for it and I didn't get it right after high school.

I try not to kick my own ass about how my life time line seems so far behind "everybody" because it isn't really true.

__________________
Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

little_tippler

My last reality check was last year, when I had braces put in...and realised that when they came off I'd be 30. Braces and 30...lol

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

Fotzlid

lol yes


not me. i have access to the good stuff.

she's a good kid, didn't mean it maliciously. one of those open mouth insert foot moments.

same here when i went back to school, only it was a bit more than a decade difference.

Jinn

I realized the same thing going back to college a year after graduation, when I was paying for the classes myself and going out of interest rather than requirement. It's amazing how fast "maturity" can sneak up on you.

__________________
"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

Push-Pull

Heh. Had a similar moment with one of our young cashiers at work. Me and a co-worker (both around the 40 mark) were talking about this and that when a young 20~ish cashier asked about the conversation. It was clear that she wasn't old enough to follow, so just for fun, I asked her how old she was when the Space Shuttle exploded. Her reply was "That was just a few years ago, I was about 16". That's when my friend asked her "No, no, no, the FIRST shuttle....." We both had a laugh about it, she was a little embarrassed, and when it calmed down, she learned a little history.

__________________
"No laws, no matter how rigidly enforced, can protect a person from their own stupidity." -Me-

"Some people are like Slinkies..... They are not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs." -Unknown-

DAMMIT! -Jack Bauer-

savmesom11

Example #1: Over the summer I bought a new Rap CD at Best buy. The cashier rang up the purchase and said, "Are you sure you want to buy the explicit version, is this for your kid?" I was 30 at the time. Young BASTARDS!!!

Example #2: My younger sister and I are five years apart. We went to a party together and some idiot asked her if I was her mom. Btw I do not look old enough to be a teenager’s mother let alone a twenty something’s. After I ripped him a new one, I calmly left to renew my gym membership.

__________________
* I do not believe that struggles are a sign of life falling apart, but rather a step of life falling into place. *

jewels

No reality checks needed here. Most think I'm much younger than I am.

I stay close to my twenty-some daughter and the second batch of kids I had when I was "older". They keep me young and tuned in, maybe because I never forgot what it was like to be a kid.

Ahem. At least so far.

__________________
We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
Mark Twain

SSJTWIZTA

my last reality check was about 45 seconds ago,

when i realized that im too young to be hangin' here with you old fuckers

i kid, i kid.

__________________
First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for me And there was no one left to speak out for me.
-Pastor Martin Niemoller

StanT

At 51, I'm much too old to hang around with you young shits.


Last week, as a result of a corporate reorg, I did the full retirement thing. 30 years, pension, the works.

My daughter won't let her husband ski with me, she's afraid he'll get hurt. Neither daughter will ride on the back of my motorcycle, something about scrapping footpegs on mountain curves. Yet, I am officially a retired person.

Oh, I retired on Thur and started my new job on Fri, this retirement crap is highly over-rated.

Randle2I

Don't remind me. I need braces right now as I squandered away years of my youth by not listening to my parents or my orthodontist when I had the chance. I can't say though when my last reality check was, I don't really pay them any attention.

ngdawg

I have reality checks every day. They keep me young

Ustwo

Realizing you have close to a million dollars in liability and you have your two kids sitting on your lap is a nice reality check.

But really I'm sliding into middle age quite nicely. I got all the groundwork done ahead of time, so now its salad days.

__________________
Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

World's King

When I got laid off so they could hire someone younger that they could pay less.



I'm only 27. That's just fucked up.

__________________
heavy is the head that wears the crown

Willravel

They didn't appreciate your gangster style.

Punk.of.Ages

My reality checks are a little backwards from what you're talking about. I'm only 21, but I tend to feel like I'm getting old. Every once in a while something will happen and remind me how young I am.


Like when I realize I'm the youngest person at my job.

__________________
"The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion..." - Henry Steel Commager

"Punk rock music is great music played by really bad, drunk musicians." -Fat Mike

jewels

My bad. I forgot about that. Wake-up call, yup. When I was 40ish I had left a job, sure I'd find another. There was a lot of age discrimination out there. It took me close to a year to find a half-decent job. And I mean half.

__________________
We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
Mark Twain

Kaimi

My twenty-fifth birthday. All I could think of was that it was an entire quarter of a century. That made me feel damn old.

inBOIL

Next time this happens just say "Boy, I was listening to explicit lyrics when you were still sucking on your momma's titty"

__________________
And you believe Bush and the liberals and divorced parents and gays and blacks and the Christian right and fossil fuels and Xbox are all to blame, meanwhile you yourselves create an ad where your kid hits you in the head with a baseball and you don't understand the message that the problem is you.

blktour

with age comes wisdom.


that is why I would ask you a question before I ask that 18 year old secretary.

and appreciate your answer more than hers.

genuinegirly

Last wakeup call:
when i realized that I'll finish my phd when i'm 30, if i'm very very lucky.

__________________
"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq

"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

savmesom11

Word!

__________________
* I do not believe that struggles are a sign of life falling apart, but rather a step of life falling into place. *

ring

The biggest reality check for me, was when I had to take that
first breath of air,
instead of amniotic fluid,
so far.....

flat5

..

Sion

with age comes experience...which may or may not translate into wisdom

__________________
He's the best, of course, of all the worst.
Some wrong been done, he done it first. -fz

I jus' want ta thank you...falettinme...be mice elf...agin...