Would you like to be a child growing up in today’s world?

I often think of myself as a millennial with kind of an old soul.

Here are some fun facts about me:

• I was using a VCR and watching VHS until 2009
• I didn’t get my first smart phone until 2019
• I got my first DVD player in 2007
• I drove a 90’s car with a casette player until 2014

I spent my first decade in China where I was hardly aware of the existence of the VCR and VHS tapes. By the late 90’s, DVDs have already replaced VHS in China and there were cordless home phones. Then when I immigrated to the U.S. in the early 2000’s, I saw VCR in just about every households and my goodness, the cords on the phones were like Rapunzel’s braids. I remember my step-aunt’s phone, she could walk down the hall from the kitchen without ripping the phone out of the wall.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a VCR in China. So I had no idea how VCR worked or how to worked. I grew to love the VCR though. It was very helpful when I wanted to record shows to be watched later or movies I want to watch over and over. Even now, I still have a VCR in my garage and often consider that to be a treasure from my generation.

If I’m a child growing up in today’s world, I’d probably be a social media wiz. I’d probably know how to take a proper selfie. I’ll probably not be familiar with DVDs and CDs. The only way to watch TV and listen to music would probably be on my phone. None of those things with large speakers and switching CDs after certain number of songs.

Would I like to be growing up in this world? I can’t see myself in it, not as a kid. Maybe I will and probably forever going to be an oldie.