How you know you're getting older...

Lately, my friends and I have been compiling a list of how to tell you are getting older. Feeling ancient in our mid-to-late twenties we've observed the passing of the calendar mostly with comments about how we can't party like we used to, and (my personal favorite) hangover arthiritis. But I've been noticing a another side to aging, and it has nothing to do with liver spots.

I've really only noticed this in the context of television shows. Freaks and Geeks was something I always wanted to watch all the way through, so I did. **SPOILER ALERT** In the final episode the main character goes to follow the Grateful Dead around the country instead of a prestigious summer at a top university with other leaders and CEO's and such, and I was so disappointed in her I felt like my mother (before therapy). Even two years ago I would have thought it was awesome, but this time I thought it was lame.



Last night, on America's Next Top Model, one of the contestants admitted to wasting $25,000 tuition for school to be on the show. This time I was with a group of people and we were all horrified. Admittedly this time there was a hefty price tag included, and we naturally assumed that she didn't throw away her own money, but her parents hard-earned dough (although she was a pageant girl and if it was from pageant-winnings, we would feel much better about it). Still, people need to take huge risks to succeed, and they need to fail horribly to do so, learn from missed opportunities, why does it feel like we understand that better when we're younger?



While stuck in jury duty hell yesterday, I found this great article of successful people and their earlier pitfalls. My favorite part was when Warren Buffett got rejected from Harvard Business School and was terrified of how his parents would react, but was met with "unconditional love" from his father. Reminded me to try and start feeling excited for people who do something completely insane but completely liberating. It's all part of growing up.

-Kastoory