Old Lady on Campus

Well, you can probably tell by the title just what this blog is about. The fact that I am surrounded by 18 year-olds at my wonderful School. I never thought it would bother me this much, but over the past few months it has really gotten to me.
Now, I did all my other schooling at a community college, where the average age of students was 25-30...just my age range. But now that I am at a bigger school, I am realizing just how many young kids are there and how many older students aren't. There are just some things that really get me about the whole thing, and what a fantastic forum to get it all out!
I guess one of the things is that the other students treat me regular, until they find out my age, and then it is different (I am just waiting for someone to call me ma'am!!!!). My lab partner last semester, after finding out how old I was, actually said to me "Wow, I can't believe your that old. If I didn't know how old you were, and I saw you on campus, I would probably talk to you!. I won't say what I wanted to do or say, so I just laughed it off.
The other thing is that it kills me to hear kids bitch and moan about their "bills". In one of my classes I constantly had to listen to a girl talk about her mean and awful mother who would not give her money to go grocery shopping. Now, if this was the kind of mother who didn't make her daughter get a job I could (kinda) cope with her, but not only did this girl have a job, but she also had a meal allowance! Once again I bit my tongue and didn't say what I wanted to, which was "Look, honey, you want to talk about bills, walk in my shoes!!!"
On a positive note, I will say that the one thing that has been my saving grace is the CALL center (center for adult learning). It is a room that has a big table, a computer, copy machine, couches, resources for parenting, managing your money, etc., and most importantly FREE COFFEE. Of course the first time I walked in I thought they were going to ask for I.D. because they were probably thinking that I was just there for the free coffee, but as the semester progressed, I made a few friends, and they knew that it was ok that I was there. (haha) But most importantly, I was O.K. with being there because I realized that it wasn't so bad (and I wasn't the only) Old Lady on Campus,