Back to school

It's officially the end of the summer at Abstract Citizen hq, in the least fun way imaginable: after a long hiatus, we're both in classes. Ms. AC is beginning an arduous process that will likely culminate in a career about which she will be truly passionate. I, on the other hand, started my GRE classes tonight, still a little unsure of what I want out of graduate school but pretty confident in the fact that it's realistically the only way I can move forward personally and professionally. And maybe, who knows - move elsewhere, physically, since there's always a remote chance we will be looking outside of the DC metro area...

My first thought is that Kaplan has terrible customer service, and my instructor is...awkward. My second thought is, wow - I love that I can hop on my bike and be there in 10 minutes. My third thought is that Ms. AC's butternut squash soup has kept very well in the freezer for the past several months.

And my fourth thought is that this officially marks the end of the precocious phase of my life. I was always the youngest in school: my last day at college, thanks to some high school IB credits, was actually the day in turned 21. My first year, I was on several occasions the only freshman in classes full of seniors. I was featured in this "year one" magazine as part of a panel of freshmen and nominated to this really silly "emerging leaders" seminar. Within 3 months of turning 21 and getting out of dodge, I was working at the place where I now (still!) work. At 23, I was the youngest director on staff and, as far as anyone can tell, ever. And since then, I've been...almost totally stagnant.

So, I'm not the oldest person in my GRE class, and I probably won't be the oldest person in whatever grad program I enroll. But no one will ever say that I am so ______ for my age. And I don't mind that - I'm happy to say goodbye to the precociousness. But it takes a little bit of getting used to, at least for now.