Aging with Grace

Tonight Alden and I went out with his co-worker Grace, her boyfriend, and her best friend to celebrate her birthday. Grace turned 19 today. 19. That's essentially 20 years younger than me.

I have high school classmates with children that age and it's about the age difference between my mom and me. Age is such a weird disconnect for me. I often seem to find myself with younger people, especially men. And I wonder what it's about, mostly because it's not entirely "normal" (and I mean that in the statistical sense of the word). The reality is that most people in the world my age and even younger are married with kids, a house, a car, and a stable job. This is what is expected and this is what is valued by the majority. I like to think that I march to the beat of my own drummer and it's not a bad thing. But there's always the nagging doubt that there's something wrong with me. That I'm immature. That I don't want to "grow up". And maybe there is something to be said about feeling more confident as the older person. I guess sometimes older people make me insecure because I don't have their mundane (and I mean that in a non-judgmental way)knowledge about houses and cars and school systems. I'm still like a carefree kid when it comes to those things.

The photo above shows Grace and me. (It also highlights my embarassingly poor knowledge of Photoshop.) Grace could be my daughter but instead is a friend.