Alumni

Somehow, we've become alumni.

Growing up in a college town, I knew about alumni; they were the older people wandering around in Penn State sweatshirts after football games. They were the ones in line at the Creamery talking loudly about how everything had changed since the good old days.

And now we're alumni. Yes, I knew when I graduated I had become an alumna--but for several years after college, you can have the illusion that you're not really that old. It's not hard to imagine moving back into the dorms and taking classes again, and picking up right where you left off with your friends. The illusion is even easier to maintain if you go to grad school, since you're still a student and still hanging around campuses.

But when you've been out for nine years and find yourself with a house and child, and your life bears almost no resemblance to that of a college student, suddenly the students look young and you feel out of place walking down the street at night. You also find yourself doing things like going to the Diner and ordering a grilled sticky (even if you never used to order that), or going with friends to take your kids for a photo shoot at the Nittany Lion statue.