Twenty Something Girls And Forty Something Women

Hi y’all! I’m back home from holiday in Chicago, back to real life: work, my kitten Stella, and my cozy (and charming messy) apartment. As I get through this post holiday week with Friday off (thanks B), I’m adjusting to the end of my student teacher’s practicum placement, along with a new co teacher. 

Through my twenty-three year career as a forty something, I reflect (there I go again) on how I started in the field wanting to be a nanny, yet turning what was going to be short term into something longer that what I imagined. I was that new teacher in my twenties where I didn’t know anything about early childhood education and working with families. What I didn’t know was, as the nanny agency put it,  one of the reasons why I wasn’t getting hired back then as a nanny. I look back at my twenty something self to where I am now-and how I got here. Hard work, questions, answers and supportive teachers who showed me the way in the same way I show both my student teacher and new co teacher. 

An episode of Sex and The City entitled “Twenty-something Girls Vs. Thirty-something Women” inspired this column, plus the recent column by Mr. Tito at NODQ.com where he discuses forty something CM Punk in AEW. SATC tells the story of Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte in the Hamptons as part of a summer share: Samantha fires her twenty something assistant for unprofessional behavior, Charlotte meets a twenty something guy and pretends she’s a twenty something followed with a party favor that needs medication, and Carrie is followed by a twenty something who idolizes her. The story follows the behavior of the partying we all did at that age (myself included), and the pain of rejection for someone younger than you-Carrie runs into her ex, Mr. Big with his new girlfriend, Natasha who is younger than Carrie. Upon seeing Big, Carrie becomes sick (who wouldn’t, especially after Big said he couldn’t commit), and puts her life back together (at the moment). Tito’s column discussed Punk’s age, along with the need to change his style plus submission moves being an older version of himself compared to the Pipebomb speech in Summer 2011. 

In our forties, we begin to slow down. We may also change some habits along with our style. Gone are the impulse purchases (I really shouldn’t talk after the impulse purchase of a new Kate Spade bag on Black Friday), the fashion of popular name brand clothing, the glitter eyeshadow, and other things we did and wore in our twenties. (Again I shouldn’t talk given my love of labels and the fact that I wear glitter shadow on occasion, only applied as a top coat of sorts). Arthritis and Alzheimer’s both set in during the forties, and having epilepsy I’m at a high risk to develop memory loss early. (What was I talking about? I forgot. 😀). I look at twenty somethings and see a former shadow of myself at a time when I was trying to figure things out. 

There was a time when I didn’t like twenty somethings. It wasn’t because they were younger, had better skin or better anything. It was a former employer who hired a twenty something for a management position with no experience and poor attitude toward families and staff. It was the impression I got of entitlement, selfishness and poor work ethic that made me not like some of them, thus feeling similar to how Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte felt. 

Somewhere along the way, we blended like a well blended martini. I found them adorable and fun. Despite the age difference, we had two things in common: we were both first time teachers and learning. They learn from me, and I, given my years as an educator, learn from them. 

Twenty somethings. Trying to find their way in the world that we sometimes question how to navigate. 

With time machines and love,

Dani