On Feeling Old

Having a youngish face and a generally youthful outlook in life, and being small in build and height, I hardly feel that I'm aging in years. My husband always says I'm like a preschool teacher; I connect well with the kids (even those not my own) because I'm young at heart.

Sometimes, though, some little things remind me that the years are rushing by and that the one day I've been most dreading might actually be just around the corner. Last week, I was browsing through a friend's friend list on FB and noticed the name of a guy who I knew was living with a friend of mine from way back media days. I haven't talked to my friend in at least five years, and I wanted to know if she has an FB account.

So I clicked on the name of her boyfriend, Jing, whom I've met as well and was a friend of my husband during college days. I went through Jing's status posts and, true enough, he had a post on Mel Dominguez, my friend. He greeted her on the anniversary of their 12th year together, and I marveled at how time flies, as I've met Mel long before they've become a couple; now they're 12 years down the road. I'm happy for them.

I clicked on Mel's FB, meaning to just go through her timeline quickly to find out how things were going for her lately. Then I saw her photos of a Singapore trip that said "...with Paolo Alejar...". I know a Paolo Alejar from office. He's one of our junior writers in ERI, but he's about to resign to pursue further studies. I coach him once in a while when I handle his articles. Could this Paolo Alejar be the writer I know? How is he acquainted with Mel Dominguez?

Heart pumping, I went through all of Mel's photos and saw one with the caption "my beautiful kids" and Paolo, my officemate, was one of them!

Oh my God! Mel is Paolo's mom! I've seen this guy as a child when Mel would bring him along, and now he's my subordinate, working with me in the same office. He's grown bigger, of course, and he's also now a writer. Who would have thought I've seen this person in shorts, a kiddie shirt, and rubber shoes?

So now, I feel really old.

I'm okay with not looking my age. But finding out that the writer you're coaching is actually the "little" son of a friend (with whom I've been really close when I was still in media, and who acted as one of my confidants when I was having love life problems at that time), the years seemed to have suddenly caught up with me. Or the other way around. I was only 24 then, I realized, and I almost choked on my own saliva. That's 18 years ago!

Rush to the mirror, look at wrinkles, see eyebags...drowned self in coffee the rest of the day. Ulk! Does coffee make you old? (faint).