Officially old
It is official. I am old.
I assume there are many times in one's life where that realization will hit you square in the face. When a monumental event comes and goes leaving you with the knowledge that your life will never be quite the same because some youthful era has come to an end. Getting married is probably such an event. Having children. Retiring. And while those particular examples are pretty far off still in my life (I said I'm old, not ancient), I have probably faced a slew of equally monumental events in the last year. Graduating from college. Getting my first real job. Officially moving out on my own. Now I am not much of a sentimental person, and through these events I have stood tall and proud without any of them really being able to phase me.
But the one that just occured trumps them all. My @mit.edu email account just expired.
For the rest of my life I am forced to have the 'alum' added before the '.mit.edu', a constant reminder to everyone who sends or recieves an email to me that I am no longer a care-free college student. I have a lot of fond memories of that email account. Checking it 10 times a day. Writing people. Ok, thats about it. But that email account served me faithfully for the last 4.5 years. It served as my conduit to the virtual world. The only other email address that I had before that one was the crappy one I had from our local ISP back in Florida. I have no real love for that address. I associate it with a lesser time. A time of dialup service. With my 14.4k modem. Sure, I eventually upgraded to 56k, but does a starving person really thank you if you give them a second M&M? Yes you doubled their caloric intake, but they are still nowhere near full.
But my @mit.edu account set me free. I went to a magical world of constant connection to the interenet and T1 lines (*historical note* - I am purposely leaving out the period in Flordia where we got a cable modem. This is done mostly for dramatic effect. And because I associate that cable modem to the days of Napster and I hate to dwell upon that loss). A world where I could donwload a whole bunch of illegal movies and software because it wouldnt take forever. But alas, all good things must come to an end.
Fairwell @mit.edu. You shall be missed, and never forgotten.
I assume there are many times in one's life where that realization will hit you square in the face. When a monumental event comes and goes leaving you with the knowledge that your life will never be quite the same because some youthful era has come to an end. Getting married is probably such an event. Having children. Retiring. And while those particular examples are pretty far off still in my life (I said I'm old, not ancient), I have probably faced a slew of equally monumental events in the last year. Graduating from college. Getting my first real job. Officially moving out on my own. Now I am not much of a sentimental person, and through these events I have stood tall and proud without any of them really being able to phase me.
But the one that just occured trumps them all. My @mit.edu email account just expired.
For the rest of my life I am forced to have the 'alum' added before the '.mit.edu', a constant reminder to everyone who sends or recieves an email to me that I am no longer a care-free college student. I have a lot of fond memories of that email account. Checking it 10 times a day. Writing people. Ok, thats about it. But that email account served me faithfully for the last 4.5 years. It served as my conduit to the virtual world. The only other email address that I had before that one was the crappy one I had from our local ISP back in Florida. I have no real love for that address. I associate it with a lesser time. A time of dialup service. With my 14.4k modem. Sure, I eventually upgraded to 56k, but does a starving person really thank you if you give them a second M&M? Yes you doubled their caloric intake, but they are still nowhere near full.
But my @mit.edu account set me free. I went to a magical world of constant connection to the interenet and T1 lines (*historical note* - I am purposely leaving out the period in Flordia where we got a cable modem. This is done mostly for dramatic effect. And because I associate that cable modem to the days of Napster and I hate to dwell upon that loss). A world where I could donwload a whole bunch of illegal movies and software because it wouldnt take forever. But alas, all good things must come to an end.
Fairwell @mit.edu. You shall be missed, and never forgotten.
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