In 2003, when I began writing columns, a desktop became my most treasured necessity. And one day I panicked and asked my youngest bro, “The monitor is black!”

Bro: “Turn the monitor on.”

Me: “How?”

Bro: “There's this button...”

I’m old school. The type who can get a 100-percent score on that checklist, “Nobody Has All 20! How many for you?”

The checklist:


1. Used a rotary phone

2. Used a floppy disk

3. Used a typewriter

4. Taken photos with a film camera

5. Listened to music on a CD

6. Listened to a cassette tape

7. Listened to a vinyl record

8. Listened to music on a Walkman

9. Listened to music on a boombox outside

10. Watched a video from a VHS tape

11. Sent or received a fax

12. Recorded music from radio to cassette

13. Rented a video from Blockbuster

14. Accessed the Internet by dial-up

15. Used a phone book

16. Sent a postcard

17. Used a paper map to get somewhere

18. Owned a dictionary

19. Owned an encyclopedia

20. Paid with a paper check


And I was actually laughing while copying that list.

Oh my gosh. I'm not only old school; I'm officially old.

A few years ago, I entered Centrio Mall’s lounge at the ground floor, the one that requires a fee which I think is Php20. And for the very first time, the receptionist simply smiled at me and greeted me without asking for payment. I was, of course, pleasantly surprised: Wow, I’m now one of the mall’s most valued clients, I don’t have to pay for the lounge anymore.

My Realization 101 finally happened at a donut shop at Centrio when its cashier asked for an ID. My thought bubble: I need an ID to buy donuts? So I asked her, “What ID?” She said, “Senior citizen ID.”

The perks of looking old before you’re actually old. And being told, “You look young for your age,” only means you’re old. There’s no escape from this. Each one of us eventually gets old. Yes, even you, the newly born you who’s only a few seconds old.

When I was young, I thought my parents were already old in their 40s.

Now I look at my 40-ish friends and see how young they still are, with so much ahead waiting to be discovered. Part of me wants to warn them about life in their 50s and 60s. Another part says, don’t spoil the fun. I do hope they figure out who their real friends are while it’s still early. Realizing that only in their 50s and 60s can shatter most of their trust and faith in people. Still, the truth reveals itself only through trial and error, the truth and nothing but the truth.

Eventually they will reach an age when a familiar situation comes around and they say, “Oh, this is exactly like...” only to find the old survival skills don’t work anymore. No bad and sad experience is ever exactly the same as another. They just have to stay hopeful when gloom tries to move in.