In the future I'll be realizing how young I was...

It's official. I'm getting older. This realization didn't come alongside a birthday celebration (because mine's in December, hint hint), but instead out of a conversation I had with one of my students. We were talking about 1983, for some reason which I can't remember, and then about what year were born. Nicole is in the fifth grade, and was born in 1994. Which was bad enough. But when I told her the year I was born- 1981 (a great year, by the by), her eyes about popped out of her head! She couldn't even fathom such a long time ago. And that was when I realized that I was officially older. Not ensure consuming, depends wearing oldness (despite the bursitus and various other elderly ailments), but I'm definitly moving away from my youth. Which freaks me out. I'm content with the knowledge that I'm slowly becoming more adult like, but at the same point, I wonder what exactly I have to show for my aging.
The other night, I spent some quality time at my local Barnes and Noble (as I frequently do), and I started reading Prep by Curtis Sittenfild (which was pretty engaging, I'll definitly read more the next time I'm there). After reading the auther information, I noticed that she was 27 or 28 and she has a best selling book published. Shes four years older than me. Which not such a great difference. I'm constantly hearing about people who do amazing things in their mid twenties, who have actual accomplishments. Which makes me wonder what accomplishments I'll have by my later twenties (as I'm already somewhat immersed in those middle years at the ripe age of 23). The only thing I'm pretty certain of at this point is that I'll have my masters degree, which will hopefully lead to some job, that ideally won't involve data entry, and instead be heavy on the creative aspects. I suppose only time will tell at this point. And whenever that mysterious future becomes the equally mystical present, I'm sure I'll still be experiencing these twin tensions of feeling both young and old, and desiring to accomplish more. Weird.