Well, it’s happened again; as of this morning I’m 54.
It’s interesting to me to be one year away from the Seniors Menu at IHOP… Me, a “Senior Citizen“. LOL
The perception of time really does accelerate as you get older. When I was in my 20’s the years felt like decades, but now five years ago may as well have been yesterday. Everything is conceptually compressed into a much shorter impression of time than it really was, because there’s so much of it blurring together behind me.
For example, there is very little difference for me between memories of dialing into CSNET (the proto-Internet) in 1985 and dialing into EOTD (a local BBS) in 1993 – both could have happened on either side of a weekend. I mean, it seems like a year or two ago I was setting up my first web server on a PowerMac 8100/100 using WebSTAR – but that was 1995.
I think that’s why I picked up the journaling hobby back in the early 2000s; it’s partly to keep everything organized, separate, and unique from everything else packed into my head, and therefore referenceable, but also to have some sense of permanence beyond my span of days…
At least until the web hosting stops getting paid for I suppose.
Aurora, the Empress I played in Secondlife, was nutty about archiving her memories because while she was effectively immortal, her memory was finite and she would eventually forget her past – and the only immortality she could offer anyone who impacted her life was simply to remember them…
I think a bit of that character affectation is a reflection of my own desires. When I shuffle off this mortal coil, my entire existence goes with me – save for what people remember of me. So I write things down to try and aid that process a bit.
Not that I figure I have much to worry about just yet; 60 is the new 40 after all. 🙂
Listening to "Chasing Yesterday" by FM-84