I was shocked to learn last summer that my little brother had begun attending the singles ward. That is, I suppose, a normal thing for 18- year-old, high school graduates to do, but this was my little brother we're talking about—the one whose diapers I had changed and t-ball games I had watched. I mean, we've got three siblings in between us. It's realizations like that that somehow make me feel old.
I've been attending singles wards for eight years now. And as a 25-year-old girl, I've got to be careful. I just don't want to be visiting my home singles ward and accidentally flirt with a my little brother's friends who are years younger than me. Fortunately in the singles ward I attend on the east coast, the younger guys are scared away by the 150 or so college graduated women that are in ward. If some unknowing, fresh-off-the-mission elder somehow isn't warned that the ward isn't exactly like his freshman BYU ward, he's definitely only going to last a few weeks, breathing a sigh of relief when Christmas break is over and he can start up again at BYU.
Facebook also adds new opportunities for me to realize that girls I used to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for while babysitting, are now on the dating market. One of them, a college freshman, is engaged...complete with “Chris and Sara are tying the knot” group page. In my mind, she's still the 7-year-old that ran down the street barefoot. Weird.
At some point in every Mormon girl's life comes the realization that those cute elders you used to idolize as a little girl and crushed on in high school are really just boys. Yep, when the RM's remind you of your little brothers, you somehow feel like you've aged decades. Let me just clarify the incredible respect I have for the elders I served with on my mission. As fellow missionaries and leaders, their dedication and selflessness once again turned 19 & 20 year old boys into giants in my eyes. But take away the mantle, the suit, and put a 21-year-old boy back into college life, and they once again seem so much younger to me now than I ever though possible back when I was in Young Womens.
It's all perspective, I guess. I'm 25 for crying out loud; that's not really old, right? Yes, it does come before 26, which just doesn't sound like fresh out of college age, but to most women in the world, I'm not old. Take away the BYU bubble, the 18-year-old girls who get married in some crazy place called Rexburg, and the Utah culture, and I suddenly become a young, single, independent, 25-year-old woman who is still wrinkle, stretch mark, and commitment free. And for the heck of it, let's just all realize even if I did move back to Provo (which you would have to pay me A LOT of money to do), I'm not old, ok?!? Just cause my friends from high school days have three kids, doesn't mean I have to have three kids too. But can I hold their baby in Relief Society? ...because I'm secretly baby hungry and don't even have a man.
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