What's My Age Again?

I was talking to a friend on the phone yesterday, and he asked if I was beginning to feel my mortality. I responded "What mortality?"

Well, I didn't actually say that, but I should have, and I did think of it just now...so that counts for something doesn't it?

Of course I've considered my mortality, and what's more, I've actually had several near death experiences (2 by auto, 1 by chainsaw, 1 by horse).

Having had my entire life flash before my eyes a few times, I've always felt the need to make it more interesting than what I've observed.

To that end, I've always tried to learn new things and become more well rounded (at least intellectually).

Which is at least part of why I'm here in Austin.

But what is it like being twenty-three? I'm a little too old to be an undergrad (classified as an OTAS, "Older than average student" according to my friend, another perpetual student).

But what's wrong with being a perpetual student? Really, we should always be students in a sense, to stop learning is one form of death isn't it?

But I do feel distanced from most of the student body I've interacted with. It's like observing a child reasoning something out you learned how to do a long time ago.

But perhaps the one thing that makes me feel my age more than any other is how different my approach to my education has been compared to my peers.

While I try to absorb myself in the material and learn as much as I can from it, my classmates seem pretty disinterested, like the only thing they can get out of a class is a few credit hours.

This worries me, it used to be that college was the time that you explored new ways of thinking, read authors with wild ideas, and spent too much time primping your hair.

It would seem only the last is still true. A spirit of consumerism has infiltrated even the halls of higher education.

Well, hopefully when everyone's broke, they'll start to learn again, and maybe even think.

On that cheerful note, I'll leave you to your thoughts, if you have any.