Finally 40

In the coming week, I will turn 40 years old. Finally. I think that I have been waiting almost forever to be the age that I have felt most of my life. Even when I was a young girl, I just wanted to be "grown up." To add fuel to this instinct, from the time that I entered my early teens until even last week, people have always thought that I am much older than my actual age.

 When I was 13, people used to mistake me to be the 17 year old in the family. They would bypass my sister and say, "So, where are you applying for college?" You can imagine the delight this gave a 13 year old and I am sure that I am made sister aware of it every possible moment. 

 When I was in college, we had a guest to the Psychology Dept. This individual saw me carrying around some papers and addressed me:

  • "Are you a secretary here?" "No, I am not."
  • "Well, then you must be a graduate student?" "No, I'm sorry."
  • "Then...are you a faculty member?" Laughing - "No."
  • "Well, if you are not a secretary, graduate student or faculty member, then what is your affiliation here?" "I'm an undergrad." "Really? No!" "Yes, I am."


 When I took my first "real job" after college, I worked at the Spurwink School where I was mistaken for someone in her late 20s. This is where I met a full-fledged adult who said that she always felt that she was older than her cohort and that it wasn't until she was 40 that she felt the same age as her peer group. This is the first time that I had heard someone else express what I had always felt. So, I officially started to wait for my 40th birthday.

 Last semester? Someone thought that I was 48. Well, there is no need to rush things now that I am finally 40, is there?

 So, I am about to be 40. It feels slightly strange to leave behind my 30s and even stranger to think that I am a decade away from being 50, but since I have been waiting for this moment, I'm going to embrace it. Plus, I move into a new "age group" with slower qualifying race times, which is a dream for this slower runner!

 Here are a few pictures of me as I crossed the line into other decades.
Me, Christmas, 1973, 10 months old.
  
Me, Fall 1983, age 10.

Me, probably in 1984, age 11.

Me, Fall 1991, age 18, right after I moved to Cleveland to attend the Cleveland Institute of Music

Me,  Summer 1991, age 18, in Europe
Me, one decade-ish older, 31, 2004, when I served as a post-doctoral fellow at the Family Research Laboratory, University of New Hampshire
Me, 32, with Blackberry, Spring 2005 
And, here we are in Fall 2012 - just about to turn 40; Neil and me at the Met. Museum of art in NYC

Dorothy and me, Fall 2012, celebrating her 23rd birthday.

I wonder what pictures I will post a decade from now?

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