Tattered Page

Usually I wouldn’t bring attention to this, but this birthday is something special.  See, last year, my sister told me I’m not getting any older.  She’d reached that stage of womanhood that many do: “permanently 34.”  She won’t admit to getting any older.  She’d decided. Final answer. 

Now, I’m only a year & 3 days younger, so I’d have to stop aging too… otherwise it’s be too weird.  Her younger brother couldn’t be older than her, after all.

Unfortunately for her, I’m a bit forgetful in my old age… or maybe she forgot that “weird” is where I thrive… so today I turned 35. 

Oops. 

She now has an older younger brother.

There’s only one way to remedy this paradox. 

If I’m 35 and she’s still caught in 34, then I must’ve been the “big brother” all along!  In classic comic book fashion, I now get to retcon* my childhood, rewriting all the tales where “because I’m the oldest” won debates- every moment where seniority mattered.  

It’s the only way to set things straight.

Of course, there were a few moments when the eldest (who “should have known better”) took the blame, but I’d rather not dwell on the negative.  We’ll leave those memories as they were. 

I can do that, because I’m the oldest.  It’s my right.

But man… thirty-five.

Thirty five isn’t technically a benchmark year.  It’s not like hitting 18 or 21- there’s nothing that’s suddenly now “legal” for me that wasn’t before… well, except running for president, I guess**. 

Still, there’s something powerful about that number.  Maybe it’s because you’re old enough to have entered the carreer rat race, realized what it really means, and are left weakly asking “how many more years till retirement?”

It’s that age where you really start wondering if maybe you should’ve stayed with Tink, Peter, and the other Lost Boys.

Am I ready for this? 

It’s the big three-five. Treinta y cinco. Sanjuu go.

Guess I can live with that… for now… but why rush things?   

I’ll stay here a while.  Thirty-five’s a good solid number to dwell on for a while- savor it.  No need to dive headlong into thirty-six.

I can do that.  I have that right. 

I’m the oldest.

 

 

* Retroactive Continuity 

** Since I’m aiming for ”Supreme Dictator” that’s not really relevant.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 21st, 2006 at 3:47 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.