Act Your Age

Dear Shawn,

In a good year, I will go on two cruise vacations. Since buying my home, this hasn’t happened very much as I always seem to be working on projects around the house instead of exploring the seas and their many ports. One of the first things I do when I get on board is to start looking for the people my age. I seek out the thirty-somethings, twenty-somethings, and people in their forties, if they seem to be acting young. The last few times I was at sea and I did this, I realized later that something’s not right. I am no longer in my thirties and it’s starting to show. I’m afraid people are now thinking, “How nice of those young people to be hanging out with their father!”

One of the best things about this job is working with fun people. I don’t have much of a social life at home, so hanging out with a fun crew is often the only social life I get, and that is usually fine with me. Long layovers allow for a chance to have dinner, drinks, maybe go to a movie from time to time, or just hang out in a hotel room and commiserate. It’s a great social life, but with different friends each time. Sometimes the ages can vary quite a bit from one person to the next, but as flight attendants, we all have a lot in common.

The crew I am working with today are both in their mid-twenties. I feel like I fit right in when we were hanging out after our flights the other day. We had a long layover and there was talk of going to a few bars the following day. I was asked if that sounded like fun, and I said that it depended on the timing, as we had an early flight this morning, and there is nothing worse than flying home with a hangover.

Yesterday, I went to lunch on my own, wanting a little quiet time. I got back to my room and realized that I had never heard from the other two. As it turns out, they did go out to a few bars, and for about a minute, I felt really left out. Why didn’t they call me? Oh, yeah, maybe because they don’t want to be out with someone who could very easily be their father. Who wants to go out with a fat, old, bald guy, right? They ‘should’ be out having fun without me as a chaperon.

I’ve always had friends who were older. When I was general manager of the Harley dealership, one of the people I was closest to was our book keeper. She was a fun woman who could have nearly been my grandmother, yet she loved the music I listened to, was vivacious, fun and called herself Maxine, as in the cantankerous character from the greeting cards. Well, she nearly looked like the real-life model.

That will be me. I will the older friend who never acts their age. Like my father, I always love having a good time, and I can’t help it if the younger folk are having the kind of fun I want to have. I just hope they don’t mind me tagging along. And trying to keep up.