"AND A HALF"

Well I most certainly don’t say “I am such and such an age and a half” but there were too many times when I did. Thinking back, I must have been five when I was asked how old I was and my reply was “I’m five and a half years old.” That made it sound as if I were almost six which in reality I was not but oh it made me sound older.  Why did I want to sound older? It was the common core of all young kids to want to be older thinking that it would make it more desirable.

My adding “and a half” to my age continued until I was sixteen and then it seemed to come to some screeching halt. Reason? It really sounded ridiculous to say that to anyone and did anyone care? Very doubtful. And I’m sure they heard it way too often from other teenagers or those younger. Did these people say the same thing when they were young? I’m sure that they did although I’ve not done any research into this saying: I just heard it all of my life. And said it.

Another reason for my screeching halt to saying these three words was what my mom said to me when I was sixteen—well sixteen and a half to be exact, if you really want to know for she said to me “Don’t wish your life away. Time goes by too fast.”

After that I never said “and a half” added to my age although I didn’t believe what my mom said was true. Life seemed to go slowly with a lot of leftover time for this and that.

But her point was so right for the older I became, the faster the time seemed to pass. And now it just doesn’t pass—it zooms for it’s no sooner one month and then it’s the next. It’s no sooner one year and then it’s the next. And I remember her saying “Don’t wish your life away” but it was the hope of all little kids and teenagers to become older: I made a list when I was twelve [and a half,] of things I wasn’t able to do and that list was long. Did I keep the list? Of course I didn’t; I never showed it to a single soul for fear of being embarrassed to the nth degree.

I won’t write what was on that list but let’s just say that I did everything on it and then some—just the typical things that girls wanted to do to look cool and be cool. Nothing bad. Nothing sordid.

To be twelve and a half again? I wish. To be sixteen and a half again? Again, I wish. But since neither is possible, I’m trying to put skids on my life and that’s not working out well at all. The skids don’t seem to work anymore, I say pathetically, for all they do is make time go faster. Rest assured there is one thing I will never say ever again and haven’t in a long time, and that’s to say I am such and such an age “and a half.” That just makes it all the worse. Believe me.

Sherry Hill

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Sherry Hill

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