I am surrounded by a bunch of young pups in this newsroom. The average age of my five colleagues is 27.8 years. That makes me almost – but not quite – twice the newsroom average.
This can make for some interesting conversations, because although I like to think I'm quite young at heart, there are times it feels like we are speaking completely different languages.
For instance, they think the 1980s and 1990s are retro. Seriously? They grew up watching things like Dragonball Z and Breaker High – I don't even know what those are. Their taste in music runs to the Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer, Houndmouth, July Talk and Daft Punk. Again – no idea.
Sometimes I feel like I'm living on Mars. I prefer music from the likes of U2 and Van Morrison. I look forward to what is referred to as PBS Sunday Night in our house so I can watch Masterpiece Theatre and other gems, and I live for anything they play on BBC Canada.
While I do sometimes feel left out of the conversation when they start chatting about the latest thing they saw on Buzzfeed or Vice, it's also a great way to keep my finger on the pulse of what's trendy – without having to actually be a part of it.
It's also the impetus for some pretty amusing moments. I especially enjoy the number of times one of the youngsters will ask me if I've seen a particular movie and my editor will pipe up with “I don't think that's a movie Christina would enjoy.” She's usually right. Anything with Will Ferrell, for instance.
Being the elder in the room does have its advantages however. I watch them struggle with things like figuring out love affairs or how they're possibly going to afford to buy a home and can think, “I'm so glad I've been through all that and don't have to do it again.”
I remember a time before social media, texting and email, when we used to actually talk to each other, when love letters came on actual paper and not with the bing of “you've got mail.”
Most of the time we manage to co-exist quite happily in our little newsroom. I think they find my “old” quirks as amusing as I find their “young” ones.
One of the best things about being part of a newsroom – and it really is one big room with all of us working madly at our computers, calling sources and editing photos – is the number of times we get to take a break from deadlines and have a great conversation, usually with a lot of laughs. Whether or not I understand everything they're talking about all the time is another thing.
Still, I wouldn't trade being older for being younger. I've earned every grey hair, every wrinkle and any ounce of wisdom I've managed to amass.
Occasionally I like to throw out something old school to keep them guessing. Andrew is still trying to figure out what I meant when I asked him if he was hip to my jive.
- Waldner is a reporter with the Airdie City View, a Great West Newspaper
