The good days are behind me

I'll start this with a little story. I'm driving with my niece, dropping her off at school. She is in middle school. We're talking about her school, what she likes, who she likes and then I have the great idea to ask her a question. I ask "You think if I go to your school right now, I'd be hip?" I don't know what in God's name possessed me to use the word "hip." I never use it, but of course I use it and she looks at me, gives me the look (you know the one with one eyebrow raise, on side of the lip a bit raise and a bit (a ghetto look)) and says (a bit of ghetto talk as well) "not talkin like that u aint." Ouch. My 13 year old niece just told me I would not be cool. I tell her "let me rephrase that, "if I rolled into school with u, u think ur friends would think I was tight?" (How low can I get, I'm seeking a middle schooler's approval). Her response; Laughter, she laughs at me and says "I don't think so." Ready. Set. Aim. FIRE. Just like that I knew my good 'ol days were behind me.
A month later I get the invite to my 10 year High School reunion (shows how old I am). Prior to my niece incident I would've been "hellz yeah nigga, I'm finna roll like I used to." I was popular in school so it would've been cool to check out some of the fools that went there and what they're doing now. Now I'm thinking that I'm gonna be the one that is looked at like a fool. Granted, in high school most people would've thought of me only making it to a two year college (not that there is anything wrong with that), now I am an attorney and have a great family, which to most would be something to show off. In the end I may go but damn my niece brought me down to reality and I sure as hell aren't the guy I used to be. Maybe that is a good thing, considering I almost got expelled from school for trying to start a cafeteria food fight (another sign of why I shouldn't go, notice I said TRYING. Long story short (ala homer) I started throwing the food, I thought other would follow, in the end it was me and another dude that threw food and that was it, damn did I look like a fool).
Here is a gold nugget to those in my age and situation; never and I mean never assume that the younger kids (like my niece) think your cool, you may think that they think your cool. YOUR NOT, I'm not and now it feels like I'm going through mid-life crisis at 28. NOW THAT IS SAD my dear readers.

I think I may still go after the humiliating and humbling experience, if I go there should be plenty of gold there. I still think there'll be tons of fools out there who thought they were cool then and are still fools now.