On getting old

Ok. I know that I am not really old, as early retired and fellow volleyball nut Frank reminds all of us youngsters whenever we complain about our aches and pains (by the way, the glucosamine & chondroitin is working again -- my knees feel good!).

Still, given this caveat, events are conspiring to make me *feel* old today. It turns out that today is the five year anniversary of my thesis defense. I'll never forget my advisor's famous words of wisdom:

Me: So, how does it feel now that your first student has defended successfully?

Him: I feel like I just gave birth to a 200 pound baby.

Anyway... I have essentially been (to astronomical accuracy) a PhD for 5 years now. It seems like just yesterday I felt that grad school would never end.

Then, today I was given a stack of applications from high school students for a program I help run, and glaring at me on the front page was this fact -- a high school student applying for the program was born in 1991. Yes -- high school students have now been born *after* I started college.

I guess this explains the grey hairs in my beard.