When I was in middle school I thought anybody over the age of 30 was old — having turned 30 earlier this year, I have changed my opinion.

While I have long understood getting older is a natural part of life, I did not feel old until last week.

I had two things happen on Christmas that helped me realize there is a reason so many of the hairs on my head have turned gray.

The first thing to happen was receiving a smart phone for Christmas. I was in need of a new cell phone — having accidentally driven over my old one — but I was not worried about getting a smart phone.

Once I started playing with it I realized a couple of things. It will be extremely handy for work, but it also has many features I don’t know if I will ever use.

I will admit I am not the most tech savvy person in the world, but I like to think I am at least “in the know.” I found out I am wrong.

Looking at my phone I noticed several apps I have never heard of only to find out they are very popular — such as Pandora, which is “a new kind of radio – stations that play only music you like.”

I love it, but I never knew it existed until I got that phone.

The other piece of technology that helped me realize I was getting older was Facebook. It was not the social networking site that made me feel old, but a post and the string of comments afterward.

One of my friends from high school, who I have not seen in about 12 years, had a post about a snowman in his neighborhood.

Apparently the snowman was anatomically correct and while my friend found it humorous, he also said it was inappropriate because of the children in the neighborhood.

I wrote him back to inform him that when he was younger he would have built anatomically correct snowmen too. He responded that he would have done worse, but he has changed over the years.

That is when I realized that I too had matured past the point of building anatomically correct snowmen, and it made me sad.

Those days are gone and while they were fun, there are more days ahead that will be fun for different reasons. I am trading in the days of mischievous fun for the joy that comes with getting married, buying a house and raising a family.

Wow, I did get old at 30. What a bummer.