Being a "Tweener" at 54

tween·er

ˈtwēnər/

noun

USinformal

1. a person or thing considered to be between two other recognized categories or types.

   
   

   "Price considered him a tweener, too small for a lineman and too big for a linebacker"

   • short for tweenager.

One who doesn't fall in any category of people (cliques). The tweener walked through the halls helplessly looking for a place to belong.

"Tweener" is usually a term reserved for those adolescents between the ages of say 10 - 13.  They're not what you call children but not quite teenagers either but I kinda like the connotation of the 2 definitions above.

I'll condense it even further to "someone who is caught between age groups".

And that's exactly where I find myself in Santa Fe where the average age of the population is 63 years old.

Maybe I missed the sign but I haven't seen the street where all the people my age live.

There's a lot of people older than me and quite a few younger than me but not so many my age.

Which puts me in a really interesting situation, that being that I'm too young for the older people and too old for the younger people.

Which is quite amusing because I have what I would consider the values and principles of an older person but the perspectives, energy, outlook and physicality of a younger person.

I am a Young Person with an Old Heart.

And it's also funny that my 23 year old daughter and 31 year old son look at me as old because I don't look at them as young - I look at them as equals.

So I end up hanging out with people that are older than me on my hikes and in social situations like dancing and I work out with people that are younger than me in my CrossFit workouts.

Oh I've tried to make connections with people younger than me - say 40 - 45, but inevitably they look at me and treat me like an older person - which I am.

So I find myself stuck in the dead zone between those too old to take me seriously and being too serious for those too young for me

Being a Tweener at 54.