Today is my birthday, and I am a whopping 23 years old.

Twenty-three is still considered youthful, but at Eastern, being more than two decades old can make you feel geriatric.

The student population at this university is predominately young, which is to be expected. Students typically come to college fresh out of high school when they’re 18. They learn valuable life lessons and graduate as responsible adults by the time they’re 21 or 22.

But I got a late start. When most freshmen and sophomores were starting high school, I was working two jobs to save enough money for college. I’m proud of the route I took to get to Eastern, but I can’t help but feel old around all these 18-year-old whippersnappers.

Every fall, the staff at Beloit College in Wisconsin puts together a list to give a sense of the mind set of this year’s incoming freshmen, and these facts seem to further alienate me from my younger peers.

For instance, the list states freshmen entering college this fall were born in either 1983 or 1984 and have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan Era. Technically, I was born when Jimmy Carter was in the White House, and I remember Reagan and the scathing criticism his administration received daily from my parents.

Most college freshmen have never owned a record player or an 8 track, and the Compact Disc was introduced when they were two years old.

Some of my fondest memories of childhood involved playing The Who’s “Tommy” backwards on our turntable and laughing as Roger Daltrey repeat “Ymmot” over and over. Granted, the LP’s and the record player were a hand-me-down from my parents’ college days, but I can’t imagine growing up without them.

The Beloit list points out today’s young coeds have never seen a black and white television set with only three channels, and they’ve always had cable and exposure to MTV. That’s crazy and certainly not comparable to my experiences.

Remember when McDonald’s came in Styrofoam containers? Remember when the Challenger blew up? Remember when Michael Jackson was black? The average college freshman doesn’t.

Beloit also lists a few “facts” that, unless they grew up in a cave, all college freshmen should know, despite what year they were born in.

It’s a gross generalization for the Beloit College staff to imply freshmen have never feared a nuclear war, especially with all of the recent talk of disarming Iraq. In addition, I have a hard time believing the Vietnam War is considered as ancient historically as World War I, World War II and the Civil War to the average 18-year-old.

Despite its shortcomings, the list succeeds at making most adults feel old, even those born in 1980. I realize this campus has students older than 23, but it’s strange to go through Beloit’s list and recall things that are foreign to most of my peers.

A lot of things happened in the 80’s which many people would like to forget, but I am a product of that bizarre decade.

It’s fun to wax nostalgic, but it can be embarrassing when you’re the only one out of your friends who can name a song by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. I might as well be driving a Cadillac and paying dues to the AARP.