All Growed Up

I took my father to a baseball game last night (the Jays won 6-2!) and couldn't help remembering the first time he took me to a professional game.

I was 4 or 5 years old and, if I remember correctly, it was a game against the Texas Rangers. The only other thing I recall from that day is walking through the CNE (this was at old Exhibition Stadium) from the parking lot to the stadium and thinking the giant slides along the way looked like fun. This was clearly before I was old enough to be interested in the roller coaster or midway games.

When I was 10 and really got interested in baseball, we went to see the Jays vs. the Twins - back when their logo was two cartoon ball players who happened to be identical "twins".

Where is this all going you may ask? Well, near the start of the game last night, my father pointed up to the scoreboard where it listed the birthdate of the player who was currently at bat. He said jokingly, "How does it feel to be older than most of the players now?"

Being 30 years old, that thought had crossed my mind before and earlier in the day I read an article about retirement savings plans that fit into this line of thought. A couple were profiled who had reached "middle age" and were concerned about their savings for the future. Middle age in their case meant 35!!!

"How did I get so close to middle age?" I wondered, somewhat annoyed. It didn't seem that long since my favourite (non-local) team was that ball club with the cartoon twins for a logo, yet suddenly people my age are acting like they're a few days away from receiving the "golden handshake".

It made me think about the cliché that you are only as old as you feel. I realized; however, that it's quite likely for most of us to feel both "young" at times and "old" at others regardless of the actual number with which we are labelled.

Sometimes I feel I can still relate to a 20 year old and other times I fit better with the 45 and up crowd. All things told though - I don't feel "middle aged" at the moment and neither should anyone in their 30's.