Aging

Today was a very interesting day. This morning I was teaching my medieval history class and somehow found myself talking about East Germany (I often find myself on tangents). This discussion made me feel very old since one of the students mentioned he was only 5 when the Germanys reunited. Nobody else, except for one non-traditional student, remembered East Germany as a country. Then when I returned to my office and checked my email I found a copy of the email message that circulates at the start of each school year that talks about the new freshman class and what they know/don’t know. Anyway, needless to say, this left me feeling old. But then when I attended a meeting later in the day, everything switched. A fellow IUP colleague on the committee turned out to be my former high school band teacher from the early 80s. I found myself thinking how weird was it that we were now colleagues at IUP. It also made me feel a little like when you move from the kids’ table to the adults’ table at Thanksgiving. I also realized that he was not a lot older than me, but that my perception of him back in high school was that he was old man, even though he was only in his 20s. It is amazing how a small change in scenery can change our perception of things.

RSM

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