Another Year in the Life | 03. 5.07

On February 27 I entered my late twenties, I think.

Is 26 late twenties? If so, I guess I'm there. Everyone I know actually thought I was older than that, so I got a lot of, "26? You're just a baby!"

I very rarely feel like just a baby. I'm not saying that I feel ancient or even that I'm particularly worried about that looming 30th birthday. For most of my life I have wanted to feel just a little older than I am. When I was something like 8 years old I saw my first film in the theater--it was Driving Miss Daisy. I saw it with my Mom and Grandma and felt so mature for getting through it. As I grew older, I wanted to acquire a "been there, done that" street cred that could prevent anyone from calling me a kid, but I also wanted to be a star pupil and model churchgoer. Fate intervened and I soon had several experiences I could rely on to lend me an air of maturity.

Over the years I feel like the air of maturity developed into actual maturity. So now, at the tender age of 26, I assert that I still don't feel THAT young. If I only live to be 75, then I have already lived a third of my existence. And the first ten years I hardly remember! But it's okay; In the final equation it has been a pretty good 26 years and I'm sure the next 26 will not be too bad either. My prediction is a self-induced, disingenuous crisis about turning 30, followed by a decade of really hard work and lots of accomplishments, followed by another decade of reassuring myself that I'm still a sexual person, followed by a decade of real success, followed by a decade of approaching old age and, once again, reassuring myself that I am still a sexual person, and then, eventually, I will die.

- Taylor
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