As I've grown older, other people have used me as a time marker. My first grade teacher was just out of school when I was in her class. I see her once every few years, and she always remarks that it is strange to have taught someone who is now so old.

My parents, usually quite mellow on the age issue, did get a jolt a couple of years ago when I remarked that I was now older than they were when they finished having children. Or, as my dad would put it, I hadn't even begun to use the equipment properly by the time he had his "fixed." Usually sanguine about such matters (they made it past 50 without much consternation), my comment about turning 28 and them having three kids (well, just about) at that point did seem to fluster them. Momentarily.

I'm still in the position of meeting friends of my parents or grandparents or whatever and getting, "I remember you when..." and then commenting on how long ago that must have been. I get the feeling I make these people feel old.

This hasn't happened to me yet. In three weeks I'll turn 30, and I haven't much thought about it. It's not that I'm spouting sayings like "Thirty is just a number" or "You're as old as you think you are." I mean, I don't think about it.

When pressed (and people seem to like to press this 30 thing), I say that I'm in the best physical shape of my life (which is true) and I feel like I'm kinda hitting my stride in all sorts of ways. I'm getting a much better handle on my writing and my wife doesn't seem to think I'm quite as big an idiot as the one she met more than 10 years ago. I'd say I'm doing okay.

But that what I say only when I'm pressed. When I'm just my usual self, I don't think of people in terms of their ages. I think of them more in terms of their attitudes and activities.

I had a boss who was two years younger than me. But he looked significantly older and he acted like a guy in his forties. I thought of him as "old." Because he is, you know? One of my co-workers is a few years older than me. And unless he whips out some 70s music reference I can't catch, I think of him as "young." Because he is, you know?

Yes, I'm one of the lucky people who looks much younger than my age. Despite the signs that say "We card anyone under 30," I still get carded whenever I buy beer at a convenience store (the grocery stores gave up carding me before I even turned 21). I don't think that's going to change. Now, I'm not as young-looking as my wife, who got carded for an R-rated movie recently, but I don't look or act like someone about to turn 30. Whatever that means.

Just what does all this mean? I've spent so much time focusing on important parts of my life that I never bothered to analyze this age thing until right now. I wasn't avoiding the subject. I just never thought about it. Nothing makes me stand back and say, "Jeez, I'm pretty damned old."

So when do other people become time markers for me? I mean, I have noticed that my parents look a little older now than they did when I was a kid (though the difference isn't profound). When I'm told of other people's children (significantly younger than me) who are now in college or getting married or something like that, I don't feel old. The one child so far produced by my college circle of friends turned three in January. Doesn't make me feel old.

Maybe it's having kids that make people more conscious of time. That watching a child grow and learn makes you so much more conscious of how much you have slowed down. My grandma always says, "You go so fast. How can you go so fast?" I don't think I'm going so fast. I think I'm going just right. Perhaps a child will point out to me how slowly I do things.

It's also quite possible that I'm just one of those people who don't think about the passage of time. I don't care how old people are. I'm more concerned with their thoughts, ideas and what beer they drink. Age is irrelevant.

You know, I really believe that. I hadn't really thought hard about it before, but I've got to say that as time is an artificial, human creation, so is this notion of age. I am as young as I think I am (and I don't calculate that in years), and more importantly, I've got as long a future ahead of me as I think I do.

I'm planning on a fairly long run.

Jon Worley plans to grill some critter and toss back a few beers on his 30th birthday. Nothing extreme. Just a nice little get-together.