This entry was inspired by a website called Friday5.org. It’s a thought-provoking weekly list of questions designed to foster creativity and personal journaling of a sort. I’m not sure if I’ll do this every single week, but I like this set of questions, so we’ll see how it goes.

 1.      At what age did you realize you are no longer young? Alternative question: At what age do you think you’ll no longer be young?

 This is an extremely though provoking question and I’m sure I could write volumes about it in one way or another. Obvioiusly, physical age is concrete and there’s nothing we can do about it. As my mother says, “it’s better than the alternative.” However, I think spiritual or emotional age is much more fluid. Life can throw things at you that age you prematurely while some people never seem to grow up.

 I had a discussion with Bill about age not too long ago in regards to hate makes us feel old. He said that it isn’t so much his own age that makes him feel old, but watching things and people around him change and age that can do it. I agree with him and have a list of several things that have recently made me realize I’m no longer young:

1.  Watching my niece and nephew grow up;
2. Hearing my mother say for the first time, on her 64^th birthday, that she felt old;
3. Hearing 80’s music on the oldies station next to music from the 60’s;
4. Learning that the first apartment my husband and I shared 11 years ago was demolished in 2007;
5. The death of both of my grandmothers;

 2.      What was the longest line you ever had to stand in?

 I would say that the longest lines I’ve ever stood in were for movie premiers back in the day before you could buy tickets for opening night online. You had to make sure you were at the theater several hours ahead just to buy tickets and then had to stand in  line for seats. I could spend four or five hours in line back in the day.

 3.      In what ways are you especially strong?

 I can stand on my own two feet better than I ever thought I could.

 4.      Who was the last person to inform you that you were wrong?

 As of yesterday, my supervisor.

 5.      When did you have to bid someone “so long?”

 It happens frequently due to my connections to college football. Coaches are always coming and going and every year, another group of students graduate. The last families I bid “so long” to were the Dudzynski and Wood families, although I had to do it vicariously through Bill. I didn’t have a chance to see them before they left town.