B! Y! U! Cougars!

Okay, forget what I said last month when I was worrying about looking old - today I got chatted up by a 21-year-old.

It was kind of hilarious, actually, in a this-is-going-to-be-awkward-for-someone-other-than-me way. I sat in the front row for Sunday School, because my roommate was teaching and I wanted to be supportive but I also am a front-sitter and will use any excuse I can to feel like I'm in the middle of things and really participating, or at least visible. After a few minutes a guy sat down next to me, one I recognized as having a pronounced stutter. Commence the polite conversation. He mentioned he'd got back from his mission less than a year ago, and I smiled inwardly and thought he was a cute ickle thing.

My roommate had a meeting after church, so I waited for her in the foyer, listening to a girl talk about the really fascinating way her mother handles her fourth-grade class (which the girl is subbing right now because she knows it really well), and while I was waiting, the guy walked up and started talking to me again. And it wasn't long before it became quite clear he was trying to figure out how old I was. He said he was going to school but didn't know what he wanted to study yet, which made it clear he really was only 21 or 22, because past that, people usually have more of an idea. He said he was turning 22 next month. He asked how long I'd been down here, and I said just a month. Where had I been living before? Oh, up in Provo, having gone to BYU. Then came the best question of all:

"Did you go to BYU for two years, four years...?"

In the privacy of my mind, I burst out laughing. Outwardly, I gave a demure if slightly amused smiled - a bit Mona-Lisaish, I like to think.

"Oh, about four years. It was a good time."

Something about the way I said it must have set off alarms, because instead of making more assumptions, he actually said, "So, that would make you around 22...?"

I smiled up at him again. "No, I stayed around Provo for a while after."

More alarms. "For quite a while?"

"For about five years," I said, smiling broadly. "But thank you very much."

Let's hope the next time I get chatted up, it's by someone a little older.