I feel old

Have you guys ever felt old in your lives? I have. A lot of times. Specially today.

Remember how I told you I have been working since I was a teen so I could pay for my college? Well, one of my many jobs included being an elementary teacher for first and second grade.

I was an English teacher and I taught them Math, Science, English and Reading Comprehension.

I like kids, and I have good English skills so I thought "what the heck! I can totally do this!". Aside from the constant "like this, Miss Mariel?"

or "am I doing it right, Miss Mariel?" or "can I go to the bathroom, Miss Mariel?"

(...) my students were really cool. Every day I would get a drawing with "Yu ar teh bezt ticher Miss Mariel",

(...) or a drawing with one of my students dancing disco music (why? I had no idea since all of them were born after the year 2000, but apparently they had the disco fever going on). I would also get the most cliché thing for a teacher: an apple. I actually got an apple! Wheeew!

Turns out, five years later, some of my students are still adding me on MSN to chat with me. Don't get me wrong, I love that. But sometimes they start talking (well, writing) like "k, omG, lol" and so on. Of course, I'm a gamer and I KNOW about it because I write like that too while playing World of Warcraft, but my students seem to think otherwise.

Student: "omG, im sry xD, u probbly dont know it, but the :) is a smiley face, just tilt ur head and ull c it"
Me: "Of course I know it's a smiley head. Don't worry about it."
Student: "u sure? cuz i can write better if u want. the other teachers don undertsand sometimes"
Me: "Well, that's because they're older."
Student: "how old r u?"
Me: "I'm 24."
Student: "u R old!"
Me: "No, I'm not. Old is like mid 40's or something."
Student: "r u married?"
Me: "No, but what does that have to do with anything?"
Student: "oh, nothin, nvm"

It's GREAT to know that you're ex-students think of you like an old person. And even better when they think you're lonely and single because "you're old and you're not married yet". Just peachy!

But today.TODAY I felt even older than I thought.

My toe nail is getting this really weird color, so I thought I should see a doctor about it. I didn't know any Podiatrist in the town, so I had to ask around.
A friend of a friend recommended one. "She's really good with any feet treatment," they said. I thought, "well, this doctor must have a lot of experience if she is really good in what she does; all those years of medic school and her office is IN a hospital. She MUST be awesome. I must see her at once!" So I called her workplace and she kindly gave me an appointment at 4:20pm.

I asked my mom to come along and we arrived there at 4pm sharp. The office was neat, but it did had that "old doctor's office" look. "She must have years of practice," I thought.
We sat in the reception until our turn was up.

And then... "OH MY GOD, HI!" I turned around and there she was, this tiny pretty girl with a doctor gown on.

Me: "Hey, I know you."
Doctor Kid: "Yes!"
Me: "We were in the same middle school, right?"
Doctor Kid: "Yes, we were!"
Me: "But you're younger than me! You graduated a year after I did."
Doctor Kid: "Yeah!"
Me: "So... you're a doctor now?"
Doctor Kid: "Sure am! Now, come on in! What seems to be troubling you? Is your foot giving you a bad time?"

I went inside her office and, what do you know? She really was a doctor! She had all these diplomas on the wall and tons of papers and statues.

A kid. Younger than me. Was a DOCTOR! MY DOCTOR! I felt so confused and OLD.
And do you know what made me feel even older? She didn't charge me. Anything at all. Not even for the ointment she gave me for my toe nail.

I mean, I guess it's cool when they don't charge you any money, but I kinda felt it was because I was older than her. I know this because I usually don't charge older people for video editing or any designs or photo edits.

I feel old. And strange. And old. Very old.



PS.- On the "old" note, I'm turning 25 this week! So I feel even older because 25 is almost 30!


Anyways, wish me a happy birthday so I'll forget about getting older! Wheeew!