When I was 15-25 years old, I was really really into movies and pop culture. I knew all the actors, actresses and musicians. I knew most of the directors. I could beat your ass at Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon every time. I could recite dialogue to Kevin Smith movies. These were important skills that would clearly garner me an important place in life. I spent an insane amount of time on this stuff– possibly more time than I spend on facebook these days (probably not).
When I entered journalism school, part of my dream was to write for “People” magazine. I know that’s not REAL journalism, but writing about celeb gossip, movies and books sounded amazing to me. Although I have definite political interests and read a lot, I’m not a news junkie and wasn’t all that interested in investigative reporting. I just wanted to write human interest stories and fluff. Perhaps this is a sign that journalism and I were not REALLY meant to be?
I used to go see all the movies, or at least be aware of them. Last night, I went to an Oscar party and hadn’t seen a single nominated movie. NOT ONE. None of them.
How did this happen? How did I go from pop culture girl to not having seen most of the movies and asking people who some of the celebrities were?
It could be part of getting older. It could be part of having kids. Or it could be marrying a man who doesn’t like going to the movies or even renting them. I never even knew there was such a person until I met my husband! This used to bother me, but now I’m over it. He’s a wonderful man and even if he did like watching movies, it seems unlikely with our children and our lack of a steady baby-sitter with a single-income lifestyle that we’d be seeing movies often these days.
I never imagined there’d be a time when I’d be watching the Oscars and asking who people were and what the hell the movies were, but here I am.
And you know what? As strange as it is that I’ve hit this point, it’s ok. I don’t really miss the pop culture OR the movies.
Ok, sometimes I miss the movies a little, but not enough to pay for a baby-sitter or tickets.
