Aging Together

An interesting and cool element of social networking sites, such as Facebook, is finding those we went to school with or hung out with as kids or teenagers- specifically, those who are our age. One thing I was realizing today, after finding many friends recently who fit into this category, is that these people have a kinship with me that others don't. They know what I'm going through with this whole aging thing. I have many friends and family members who are closer to me than these old friends are now, as time and distance have estranged most of my old schoolmates. But though I have closer friendships with them, they may be quite far from my own age. Even if they are older and have been where I am now, they are not going through it at the same time.



Sometimes I feel a real connection to these old friends because of this, because, as I've recently found out, aging ain't easy. We hit the same milestones around the same time. We have varying degrees of the same wrinkles, and we have the same basic bodily challenges. Many of my old friends are raising their kids right now, and I see them commenting to each other about their kids and relating to what the others are going through. We'll be hitting our mid-life crises (is that the right word?) around the same time, theoretically. And then, I suppose, one by one, we'll drop off. Sorry- this isn't meant to be morbid, but that IS part of the point. We are on the road travelling at the same rate. We share a special knowledge of what each other is going through right now.



Thanks to the internet, we are able to connect in a way that previous generations of estranged childhood friends could not. And that connection can be helpful if we use it to support each other. What a fascinating age we live in, as the world continues to shrink!