As I was sitting in the library yesterday, amidst the echos of several hundred thongs slapping the stairs, it hit me that 24 is really rather too old to still be doing an undergraduate degree. It would be ok if I was doing an honours or a masters or a phd or had not been to uni before, but to still be doing an undergraduate degree at my age? To still be at the same academic level as people born in 1988? It's just not right. Ok, so quantitatively speaking, I have more tertiary education than them, but still.
The JAFFYs seem to be getting younger and skankier as the years go on, and I have seen hair so big and short shorts so short that it has made me feel slightly nauseous. And the image of the young shabby boy on the bus, with the scruffy drawn on bag, with the big headphones, with the tattered science fiction/fantasy novels just doesn't hold the same appeal he held for me in 2001. Now I think it's a bit silly and cannot help but wonder where all the men are. (Truth is they're on the 7am buses to the city, not 10am buses to uni).
Although I did witness what would have to win the Nerdiest Act on Public Transport award yesterday. A man, probably late twenties early thirties, whips out his laptop on the bus. And what does he start doing with that laptop? Why opening up high resolution comic books and beginning to read them. I had never seen anything like it. He even out trumps the young fellows who enjoy discussing the molecular structure of proteins and cell membranes during their 'cruise time' to uni. And that's saying something.
