I don’t love to share details that illustrate how old I am, particularly after this most recent birthday (really not loving this number!). Yet I must tell you that I was scrapbooking this weekend. Yes, I take pictures with an actual camera. I always print my photos, whether they are taken by camera or phone. And then I put them into photo albums with journaling and memorabilia and anything else necessary to capture every experience I want to remember. So although I won’t admit I’m old, I will admit I’m old school…about this and many other things.
Another thing I’m old school about is connecting with people. I quit Facebook about three years ago for ideological reasons (those being that I think Facebook is contributing to the breakdown of our society and that it was making me not like people I love because of angry political posting), but that’s not really the point here. The point is that although I do miss the shortcut way of keeping track of friends and family spread out across the country, I also prefer to actually have to stay in touch with them.
In the past week, I’ve talked on the phone with two of my dearest friends who live thousands of miles away from me. We had a lot to catch up on, and it was fun! Fun to tell each other things we didn’t know. Fun to hear each other’s voices. Fun to laugh and reminisce and connect…really, genuinely connect, in a way that Facebook will never allow. Old school, I know…I told you that already.
I also recently went to see Downton Abbey with another favorite friend who lives only a few doors away from me. Talk about old school! We were by far the youngest people in that theatre, although who cares…I was smiling for almost the entire movie. As my mom put it, seeing the movie was like visiting with old friends. I love visiting with old friends, the real ones and the characters who feel real.
Speaking of old friends, years ago, I played on a co-ed softball team with a bunch of them, and the name of our team was Old School. We didn’t practice, we rarely won, but we had a fun time together.
While we’re on the topic of playing, how about board games? I love those, too, of course. Sitting around a table with a group of real, live people. Laughing, trash talking, strategizing, hopefully winning! (For the record, while I did not care one bit about winning in softball, I do get competitive with the board games!)
And don’t get me started on books versus e-readers. Nothing better than holding an actual paper book in my hands. Or writing letters and sending cards. And my paper planner—ahhh—writing things down on a calendar, making to-do lists for each day or week, looking back over what I’ve done this year. These things make me happy.
So I choose to be old school, while simultaneously refusing to be old! Who’s on my team?