Grup is me

So here I am, heading into April, 2006, the last month of my undergraduate degree. I have ten or so more assignments and tests to do, then it's over. Done. Finished. Completed. One more checkmark on the list of accomplished dreams in my life.

Next up? Grad school. Okay yes my 38th birthday then grad school.

It got me to thinking - given my soon-to-be new age, school and city, do I equally have to present a new me? At the age I'm about to be, is it time to start looking it? I always said I'd never cut off my hair into one of those short haircuts women all over Canada do sometime around their 35th birthday. And I haven't.

But when I look into my wardrobe these days, one year post-retirement, I really have to laugh. What a difference a year makes. There is not a suit in sight. I don't know when I last wore pantyhose, and I think I may own one winter skirt, a short green corduroy thing that hasn't left my closet since the day I found it at Old Navy for $5 and brought it home and hung it up. My wardrobe is a consistent blending of a dozen pairs of jeans and corduroy jeans, along with a few dozen short and long-sleeved t-shirts in white, blue, green, brown and black. Throw in some sweatshirts, a bunch of yoga pants and workout wear, all the requisite socks and undies and bras... then peek on over at my collection of sneakers and flipflops in all the colours of the rainbow, and it quickly becomes clear to anyone that the closet belongs, not to a business professional, but rather... to a teenager?

See, that's the thing. I dress young. I feel young, so I dress young. And I'm told it works on me. But how much longer can it work? Being on campus every day, I am certainly influenced by what I see around me. And so I buy what I know. I'm comfortable being casual.

Again, does that need to change?

According to Adam Sternbergh, over at New Yorker magazine, the answer is a resounding "not necessarily". And it doesn't have to change because, apparently, there is a name for a person like me, in their late 30s, who's chucked over the corporate world to go out and find a better life for myself, that involves travelling and summers off and being passionate about one's work. Oh and a wardrobe full of jeans and tshirts.

There is a name and an entire socioeconomic class coming up. They're grups.

And Grup is me too. In a way. Probably. We'll see....