Just East of the "Geographical Center of North America" 10:30 ish

Also, I feel young. I feel around 20.

Do you have any idea how long you can go on a college campus without feeling young? I've spent the last few weeks having a mid-college career crisis, since I'm officially halfway done. I've been watching freshman finish up their first year, and felt like a geezer. And I've watched seniors graduate like skydivers watch the guy two spots ahead take the jump. The more college becomes a strange, wonderful, temporary home, the larger life looms beyond it. But then I get on this train, and suddenly it hits me: I am a young man. I don't have to be anything else. I can ride trains, people watch, flirt. I can drink too much, run too far, talk too fast, sleep too little--and wake up the next day feeling around 75%. And these epiphanies reminds me of something: I'm pretty good at being a young man. That's easy to forget. 

Last summer was the first time I can remember feeling palpably young. Growing up you're always around people your own age, comparing your accomplishments to theirs. I still remember being the first kindergardener to finish all the books in "the red box"(despite the name, it was really more of a long bin). I was six years old but I sure as hell didn't feel young. I felt accomplished, I felt like a winner. Clearly I didn't see the emerging trends within kindergarden, otherwise I would have picked up a skateboard or something, but my point is this: I went my entire youth without feeling young. And it was easy! I only felt young in New York because I was young. Incredibly, remarkably so. I was doing comedy alongside people a whole generation older than me, many twice, a few three times my age. And I had an edge - I was young! I had energy, I had perspective. I could flirt with 17 year olds (hypothetically). It changed my perspective on everything. Even after I left the city and went back to college, I still remembered that I was young. I made more mistakes, pushed myself harder; I had fun. But eventually you forget, unless you're reminded. This train has reminded me. 

I am a young man in America.