michellereno[dot]com

On April 7, 2008, I will turn 30 years old. Not young, but old. For some reason, I’m putting a lot of emphasis on this milestone. I know a lot of people do, and I’ve never understood why. But now that I’m here, facing my agedness, it’s hitting me.

I’m not young anymore.

I can’t drink all night and wake up the next day as if nothing happened. No, I wake up and feel like death warmed over. I can’t jump on a bicycle and ride for miles without getting fatigued and out of breath. No, I ride for a bit and want to stop to get something drink ten minutes in. I can’t operate on three hours of sleep and fully function the next day. No, I get six hours of sleep and need to drink a pot of coffee before things start making sense.

But the strangest thing is that, in a tiny way, I still think I’m cool. I have nieces, nephews, cousins etc. who used to ask me my opinions on fashion and music and whatever, but now they’re telling me what’s in and what’s not. And them moment that I finally realized that I’m not as young and hip as I think I am is when this emo fad blew up all over.

Kids are wearing super tight pants and neon colored hoodies and have hair hanging in their faces. It reminds me of the 80’s, a time when all that nonsense was in style, but we’ve all looked back and can’t believe we used to peg our pants and rat our hair. I really hope no one reading this has a picture of me from the eigth grade. Talk about embarrassing.

And today, kids are cutting themselves, saying that it helps release the pain or whatever. What is happening to this generation? If I’m not cool and hip because I don’t buy into this garbage, I’m fine with it. These kids are trying so hard to be different, but by being different is what is making them all the same.

When I started writing this, I had plans on writing about what I’ve done in the last three decades - what milestones I’ve achieved and whatnot. But apparently this was more important for me to write.

Read on to Part Two if you’re interested on seeing some statistics on what I’ve done in the last 30 years.