I have lived a quarter of my life. You know what that means…

I’m as old as the invention of the DVD player. Pretty soon, there won’t be a DVD player anymore because things will come along and take the place of it. As I continue to grow and learn, I have taken in a better sense of what is around me. I’m starting to become more comfortable within my surroundings wherever they may be, but at the same time – if you can understand this – I feel that time ages as I age.

What does this mean exactly?

I started to convince myself that kids don’t play with toys anymore. In reality, I know that this is not true. I imagined that the internet has become a large part of my generation that maybe it has seeped into theirs as well. Just last week, I posted about the young teenager that won the National Texting Competition. I didn’t get my first cell phone until 8th grade! That just isn’t the case anymore. The reason why I have forgotten about toys is because I don’t see the advertisements – and why would I? At 20, I’m not watching Saturday morning cartoons anymore. Instead, I’m watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians or marathons of Criminal Minds. HOBviously, these are networks that do not correlate with that type of market. [Yes, I’m learning a lot in school.] Where do kids even buy toys anymore? Every local Toys”R”Us around me is shutting down.

If you read my blog often, you know that I frequent The Stranger blogs. In recent months, stories that I have been reading about revolve around young teens committing suicide because of bullying. Every time I read a story, I can’t help, but wonder why I feel so detached from the subject. Why is this still happening in schools? Why did I never see this occurring when I was in middle school? Why is this a matter that I am not familiar with? I can’t define “they,” but they say that bullying is normal. You read about it all the time in your books or watch it in your shows, but that’s where you leave it. I started to believe that it didn’t exist or maybe I didn’t want to believe it. There may never really be an answer to this, I realize that, but sometimes we just question.

Something that probably should have affected me when I was younger is affecting me now.