Growing Up & Getting Older

Age can certainly catch up with you in a split second. While I don't really feel that old nor look that old - as the poor check-out woman at Somerfields can attest to her complete embarrassment that I was much older than 18 - age is something I now need to take into consideration for many things in life.

I'm too old to go backpacking through Europe. Okay - so I wasn't exactly *backpacking* as the guy at the hostel in Prague indicated I had far too much luggage, but moving from city to city and country to country covering 5 countries & 9 cities in 20-some days was close enough. I was tired before I even left the UK. And by the time I did get to Prague, everything was looking and feeling the same; it really wasn't fun any more. I'm at the age where vacationing in nice hotels in one or two cities over a week or two sounds much more appealling.

I'm also too old not to have certain niceties. Living in a dorm-like environment in London at 20 is one thing; living in a dorm-like environment in London at 27 is quite another. Among other things, I need a real kitchen where I can actually cook meals & store food - not just microwave a frozen dinner or boil some pasta.

At one time, I could do many things while doing without many things as a poor student. I still may be a poor student, but now I'm less able to live as I once did. These thoughts may not inspire much in the immediate future as I'm stuck in this condition until mid-December, but it does open my eyes to what I want to look forward to once I'm back in the real world.