College kids are annoying because they're so much smarter than the rest of us. Think about it: those fresh, soft brains surrounded by all that new information and experience. They haven't had time to age and forget all those shiny new things and have their brains harden into shellacked balls of routine. They'�re still continually growing and developing new ideas and firing new synapses. Jerks.
The rest of us are so bland and uninteresting in comparison. Remember going out to dinner with your friends in college? Remember how loud you were and how brilliantly your conversation sparkled? And remember how lame the table of thirty-somethings next to you were? They didn't have anything new to talk about. No amazing ideas that had to be shared at that exact moment. They quietly ate their meal and talked about what happened at work. You bristled against them because you knew they were so old and you were so perfect with your awesome friends and lofty conversations about Foucault and Dostoevsky.
Now I'm at the table of thirty-somethings, and I feel all the bristles and quills of the college kids. "Hey, I know stuff too," I think. But I don't think I do any more. I'm too far out of college and all the neuro-pathways of those awesome ideas are tired and haven't fired in a while. They're like overgrown trails. Sure, you can see that a path leading to the Gordian Knot used to lead through the gray forest, but now it looks more like a rugged nature hike than a daily stroll.
It's 9 o'clock at the restaurant. It's late. I want to go home and put on my sweatpants and kick my feet up on the couch. The college kids aren't slowing down. Fueled by coffee and cigarettes, they're indestructible.
4 comments:
This is one of your best postings so far and the situation is tragic, for sure, for us decrepit thirty-somethings. You hit the nail on the "shellacked ball of routine".
I went out drinking this weekend with two married guys and my boyfriend to Hopleaf, an overpriced pub-collective of barely-legals living on credit. Unfortunately, no one was even giving good conversation I could listen in on. The skanky bitch near us, I found out later on, told my bf he was 'old'. He may be over 40, but he's hot and brilliant and didn't bend over to reveal a tattoo on his lower back like she did, the fat bitch.
Christine, the truth is that there are so few of us brilliant minds meeting up. College was a great place to convene, but there's nothing like that once we graduate except for well, yoga class and that's too much damn work.
Let's have coffee and be brilliant sometime soon.
-Jules from Tribby
This made me sad too. All of the stereotypes of being an adult with a job are true. We really are more boring, because no job could possibly be as intense and diverse as college classes, or produce the spectacular brainstorming that being a student does. All we can do is be our own teacher, constantly learning and growing – isn’t that what Google is for?
I agree with Jules, we still have things to say, we just aren’t getting together with great minds enough. Our worlds shrink and we end up bouncing ideas off of a small group of people, who are probably bouncing the same ideas back. We need to keep having big parties and dinners and get-togethers, to keep on par with those snot-nosed college brats!
No job could be as intense or diverse as college classes? Wrong.
But then again, I am a college professor so that may be cheating.
In defense of old folks, our conversations are not cliched repeats of the conversations that every other college student had since the dawn of the university.
I miss being able to party non-stop and then having absolutely no responsibilities so I could lounge around and recover. Other than that, there's no time in my life that I haven't felt like my present was better than my past.
Just a reflection on the theme, not really a comment on the commentary.
Post a Comment