I’ve always been cool.
I have pictures when I was a toddler rockin’ purple pants. You can’t rock purple pants unless you’re cool. I used to wear leather jackets in elementary school. I wore sunglasses, sometimes when I didn’t need to. I feathered my hair and stuck the big handled comb in the back pocket of my bell bottoms. I had a mullet when it was the hotness and converted it to a rat tail just because I could (note: that only lasted a couple of days before I came to my senses).
I had earrings back when you were only supposed to have them in your left ear. I’ve worn parachute pants, pants that unzipped up the leg to show another color, pants with intentional holes, pants hanging off my ass, and maybe even some derivative leather/suede type of pants at some point. Don’t judge.
I don’t run to buses I’m about to miss, I walk. I sometimes refrain from smiling in pictures. I drive with one hand, not two. I have never used the terms “bling”, “da bomb”, or “it’s all good” (proud of that). I’ve always listened to hip hop and swore I’d be crankin my music down the street well into my senior years. I used to breakdance on the corner as a kid and hit the club every weekend as a young adult. I knew how to do the Electric Slide well before it was played at every wedding. I used to have to check my blind spot through my back seat window due to my seat being reclined so far.
With all of these examples of just how cool I’ve been over the years, I’m starting to question my ability to maintain it.
I think this hit at some point over the last year or so. Perhaps it is surfacing because I have a teen and tween. You may not know precisely when it happens or how, but at some point you find yourself thinking to yourself that you are actually having to put in some effort to remain cool, or what is now better known as “hip” (I think).
It may be a simple conversation with your teen and her friends, or maybe even a conversation with your own friends. At some point in that conversation you might think to yourself, “What the hell just happened? Am I out of touch?” So what do you do? Just change the subject and act like nothing happened.
Case in point. I was recently having a conversation with my friend Chris and we got on the topic of Kevin Hart. I mentioned I couldn’t believe he got so much play out of coming up with the phrase “Turn Up!” after I saw him repeating it nonstop on a recent award show. I was soon told that the phrase had been out for a long time and he didn’t come up with it. I promptly changed the subject while in the back of my mind I was saying, “What the hell happened?”
Or maybe it’s one of those moments talking with your teen that you realize you are no longer the cool-er but have suddenly become the cool-ee. Maybe it’s the hottest app that people are using that you’ve never heard of. Maybe it’s new slang that makes you repeat, “huh?” Maybe it’s a new fashion style that you think looks old and out of date, yet has come back much to your surprise. What you once brought to your kids as the purveyor of cool, is now being bestowed upon you. “Wait a minute. I’m the cool one, not you. You learn all that’s hot right now from me, not the other way around.”
What the hell happened?
I started to think more about it…
I often turn the music in the car down. I haven’t purchased a new hip hop song in iTunes for a long time – I keep buying the classics. I listen to podcasts on the way to work. I wear pants that fit. I sit upright in my car. What the hell is going on?
But…I refuse to let my cool completely escape me. I will remain diligent in how I act, dress, and behave. I still listen to hip hop (sometimes loudly), I still drive with one hand, and I still wear baggy shorts. I stay engaged with what’s hot, I keep up with the latest technology, and I’m borderline metrosexual. I can teach my daughters the history of Tupac and Biggie while also explaining Kendrick Lamar’s verse. I can do it.! I can maintain my coolness – without purple pants.
Bottom line is, retain your coolness at all costs. Just because you may not be as up to speed as you once were doesn’t mean you are any less cool. Stay the course my friends! Stay thirsty!
How were you cool back in the day, even if judging by today’s standards you might not have really been that cool (e.g. mullets and rat tails)? How are you making sure you don’t let your coolness slip away as you get older?
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