Not everyone cares about your bad knees
Many things happened to me in the last 14 months. A 9 years relationship ended. I changed apartment. I started dancing again. I quit my job. I went back to school. Chaos ensued.
With chaos another unexpected element arrived: I started hanging out with people younger than me.
Partly, because my dance classes and my school were populated by a majority of younger folks. Partly, because my friends continued their seemingly linear and carefully planned lives, while I started navigating in a tempest of entropy. They got married, bought houses, had kids, moved away. They love me, and I love them, but we have fewer occasions to see each other.
Younger people started, surprisingly, to fill the space once occupied by peers. And it’s been one hell of a ride…
Problem #1: you risk scaring them when you talk about your love life
No need to tell your 26 years old co-student that an overwhelming majority of your recently married friends, those who found a soul mate after turning 30, did so by using a dating website, or even worse — Tinder.
She knows plenty of single people. No need to traumatize her.
Problem #2: you need to stop ranting about your physical ailments
I have occasional hip issues, it’s a sport injury but I can’t talk about it: it makes me sound like a grandma. I can’t tolerate alcohol as much as I used to. If I party one night, I am a zombie for the next three days.
There is no point telling my millennials friends: they don’t know what I am talking about. Now, I just try to be careful that they don’t top up my wine glass while I don’t look (they are sneakily generous with drinks).
Problem #3: you need to develop thicker skin
They will throw you, inadvertently, continuous blunders, and will make you feel old. They will talk about their upcoming 25th birthday as if it was the end of the world. They will complain about those dinosaurs in corporate jobs that are not open minded when they propose them good ideas.
Accept it. After all, you are older than them.
Problem #4: you may feel very wise
As a single person in the midst of a career change, I am clearly not the right person to dispense advice on professional or love matters. Yet — I find myself having frequent conversations about how to handle tricky situations at work or in relationships. Surprisingly, people seem to appreciate my thoughts and suggestions (as far as Tinder is not involved).
Is this a problem? Obviously not — I am glad that all the mess I went through in my life can be useful to other people; even if it is just so they can avoid, or limit, mess in their own paths.
This is based on the very statistically unrepresentative sample of one (my own experience and opinion). If you have also been hanging around younger folks, what has been your experience? Do you find younger people inspiring, unnerving, or both? And most importantly: can you stop yourself from talking about your bad hip / back / knees? Let me know in the comments below!
