Adult?

I was online playing World of Warcraft yesterday when someone from my guild (if you've never played an online multiplayer game, a guild is a group of people with similar goals and playing habits who organize activities and socialize together) referenced an event in 1973 followed by the disclaimer "Yeah, i'm that old". After further inquiry, i discovered that this was the year of his birth.
"Well, that's only two years older than me, maybe less depending on the month you were born in," i replied.

As i made this reply, i started thinking about the relative ages of my fellow guildmates. There are a few of us in our thirties, but by and large they're in their early to middle twenties or late teens, with a few in the middle or early teens. This puts the median age of my guild at about 23. That's ten years younger than me. A whole decade! If i met some of these people on the street, we'd have very little in common with a generation gap like that.

This got me thinking about my life. Hobbies and interests wise, i haven't changed much since my late teens/early twenties. I like playing video games (prefereably multiplayer or online multiplayer), i like playing my music loud, i like going to/renting movies, I prefer comedy and action to drama, the Renaissance Festival is the yearly event i still look forward to the most, i enjoy fucking around on Myspace, and i still like Anime. Reading is probably the only "adult" hobby i have, and the only "teen" hobby i had that i've developed a distaste for is hanging out at the mall. I hate malls.

Not really very grown up of me at all.

My friends out here in the real world all have very adult hobbies. Last week i asked my friend Jay what he did the previous weekend. He cleaned out his pool, worked in his yard, shopped around at Home Depot for items for his next project, attended his son's baseball games and did a few things for his wife. Another friend of mine worked in her yard and went fishing. Another took her kids shopping and had lunch with some people from her daughter's doubledutch team. They refer to Myspace as something their kids do. And so on. The common theme seemed to be yard work and kids. These people are my age or slightly older than me.

So when am i supposed to "grow up"? When does the music become too loud? When am i going to start rolling my eyes at things like Japanese cartoons and playing video games as i get ready for a lunch date with my friend Mary and her kids? What do my hobbies say about me as a person? Do people see me as fun or immature? Am i going to be one of those girls people look at and say, "Look at that 45 year old woman pretending to be 25!"? Do i even still qualify as a "girl" or should i start referring to myself as a "woman"? What if i don't want to start thinking of weekends as an opportunity to rake leaves and trim hedges?

What if i like me just the way i am? Should i care what others think? I suppose it doesn't matter if i should care or not. Because in the end, though i'll think about it from time to time, i just can't bring myself to care at all.