The Date is Just a Number

A few days ago I met this lady who was 104 years old. Not that I am an expert on guessing the age of anyone over 75 /I would be terrible at running that carnival game where the overweight scruffy carni has to guess your age or weight (which btw I always won bc I look 6 years older and 20lbs skinnier than I actually am)/ but nonetheless this woman looked good for her age.

To put it into perspective, I deduced she was born in 1906. 1906 - when the Second Geneva Convention was held to protect the Sick and Shipwrecked Members of the Armed Forces at Sea. Pirate invasions would be rampant if not for that. 1906 - when the Grand Duchy of Finland became the first nation to allow females to stand as candidates. (CT's first female governor - Ella Grasso). And 1906 - when SOS became an international distress signal. Could you imagine the sale of Brillo pads without the term SOS existing?

This woman has been alive for a long time and I really only met her in passing.

Her smile wrinkles are permanent. She is covered in freckles - sunscreen wasn't invented until 1938 and first commercially available 1944 - she would have been 38. She was gaily walking about and happy to shake my hand, for only a second though, as she was quickly distracted by the handsome young gentleman standing to the left of me. She was happy. I was happy.

So what do you say to a woman who is 104 years old? Thinking I was rather catchy, sort of creative and kind of funny, I said "104 years old! You don't look a day over 85." Note: Really thinking this compliment was something she hadn't heard before and would spark an interesting conversation that would carry through the night and maybe every Tuesday for rest of her years. I wanted that experience, I could write a novel - Tuesday's with Miss Martin. The possibilities seemed endless. Yet, I had but thirty seconds of her time. A fleeting moment is the span of billions. I tried a joke and she offered me this.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. And age is just a number."

Just an introduction...

In the beginning...
My name is Farah Chanel Hage-Sleiman, my friends refer to me as Farah (Fair-Ah) and my family refers to me as Farah (Faa-Rah), the distinction only exists because it is difficult for most people to roll their" r's" and say an "h" from the back of their throat. In Arabic my name means joy. I try to embody this virtue as much as possible.

Meet the family...
I have one brother named Abdallah, he is 27 and married to his college sweetheart, Rebecca. My dad, Fouad, is remarried to his wife, Nadine and my mother, Mary Ann has been with her significant other, Phil for quite some time now. Both my parents live in Fairfield, CT, where I was born and raised.

From right to left this is my dad, step-mom, me, my sister-in-law, and my brother on my dad's birthday.This is me and my mom.

A little more current...
Now at 21 years old I am a senior psychology major here at the University of Connecticut. I am hoping to land a job at a non-profit organization that deals with serving underprivileged youth. I am passionate about helping out young people.
For the past six years I have volunteered for the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Organization, HOBY. We work with high school sophomores from all fifty states and 23 different countries.
These are some of my dearest friends from HOBY.

I also love to ski.
This is on top of Okemo, I'm behind the camera.

And one of my secret hobbies is belly dancing.
This is my Lebanese grandmother and I belly dancing.

This is my life. It's fun, and interesting, and there are a lot of great things about it.

Life is good.

-Farah (however you want to say it)