Breaking Down?

I really wanted to start this blog off, "It's nine o'clock on a Saturday, the regular crowd shuffles in..." but sadly, it's not Saturday, I'm not at a bar and possibly most disheartening of all, I am not the Piano Man.

Instead, I'll start off a different way. It's 10am, I'm in beautiful Newport Beach, a part of sunny Southern California and yet, there is a slight rain coming down in the middle of June. Perhaps more exciting, is the fact that I am sitting in the office of a urologist for the second time in less than a month. Near me, are two older gentleman, of which I'd guess they are at least over 60. I spot a magazine on the table that says "Switzerland" on it which immediately piques my interest. My love affair for all things Europe started in 2009, and I practically jump at anything I find even remotely related. I grab a seat by the door and patiently wait my turn. A nurse opens the door and in what seemed like yelling to me, calls for one of the two gentleman sitting in the room with me. I realize that the nurses are probably used to hard of hearing clientele and so choose to speak louder. Once the man walks buy, I quickly shuffle over a few seats and continue reading. I suppose the question that bears asking is, why am I, at 28 years old, seeing a urologist for the second time and hanging out with the senior circuit? The answer: kidney stones. Not long before my 28th birthday, I woke on a Saturday morning to a sharp pain in my side and back. After a quick trip to the emergency room, it was confirmed that I had 6 kidney stones! Three of these stones were likely to pass soon and the others could move their way down at any point. I spent the entire weekend in bed, missing out on a 5k run that I had been looking forward to participating in with co-workers and friends. Better yet, I had midterms coming up later that week that I was supposed to be studying for, but I had little desire to do so. So the kidney stones necessitated a visit to the urologist on two separate occasions to tell me where I stood on the stone front and what I could do to prevent them from visiting me again. As it turns out, not all that much was needed to be done. In fact, the doctor told me I could Google some of the things he was giving me, in the event that I wanted to look up some preventative treatment potentials.

Sitting in that office with the over 60 crowd (and hearing the word "catheter" which made me shiver) I got to thinking about how I came to find myself in this situation. People have been telling me I'm young for so long, it just seems funny to me. And I'll admit, 28 is by no means old. But after battling kidney stones (something another doctor mentioned that he thought was just for old farts like himself) and my recent battle with gastroenteritis (stomach flu), I really started to re-evaluate my age. As a kid, people used to tell me how great my hair was and my mom loved it when I was 6 years old and had long hair. Even though I stopped using hair gel about a year or so ago, full time, my scalp bothers me like I've spent a lifetime drying it out. So what the hell is going on? I'm not old right? What gives? What's with all of the ailments? It reminds me of the episode of Friends, where the entire group relives their 30th birthday. All the while Joey acts cool, like everything will be fine, until he turns 30 and he's crying and pleading, saying that he made a deal (with god, I presume) to let the others grow old and not him. I don't think I'm there yet, but it is certainly around the corner, the big 3-0. Am I ready for it? Getting old?

In fact, ironically enough, this all comes around the same time that we received word that our 10 year high school reunion was coming up this fall. 10 years? Has it been that long already? What have I done with my life in the 10 years since high school? Sure I moved out for a minute, had a long relationship that seems like an eternity ago, studied abroad in Europe and am finally getting my bachelor's degree. But there are people out there, people I know that have kids (multiple kids!) and are married and who live in different places in the country and the world. I guess this is just one of those points in life, where you start looking around and saying, "What have I done so far with the past 10 years and what do I want to do with the next 10?" For me, I know that answer is a lot of things. My ailments are minor (as a friend with a more serious illness pointed out) and I know that great things are ahead of me. But reflection is a good thing and sometimes we forget to look at those minor accomplishments and realize, in our own lives, they're actually pretty major.

I'm not old, but sometimes it sure feels that way.