I was a lame kid. I just thought I’d share that. My older brother John and I are two years apart and then my younger brother Kevin is nine years younger than I am. So needless to say, Kevin is growing up with nearly adult-aged siblings and left to fend for himself as an “only child” at home with mom and dad.

He has no older siblings to play with and is all by himself with two adults. It must be so boring because John and I are so incredibly cool. With me living in Nebraska and John living in Connecticut, Kevin is the only one left in the nest in Portland, Maine. Poor kid!

Try again. He is living the life and we are definitely not cool. Kevin has more of a social life at age 11 than I have at almost 21 years old. I know it makes me sound ancient to say it, but kids these days are just so lucky! And honestly, they are just wicked cool.

I look back at kid pictures of myself, donning a corduroy jumper with a patterned turtleneck, not to mention the Barney socks and jelly sandals (long live the 90s!). Kids these days are FaceTiming on their iPhones, wearing Ugg boots and designer jeans. Yeah, that was definitely not me.

Kevin, always active and a tri-season athlete, is rarely not wearing Under Armour or Nike gear. Even his basketball team is outfitted with various styles of basketball shoes that exceed $80 a pair, easy. I’m pretty sure that our basketball teams in middle school were rocking the Famous Footwear deal of the week on “boy’s

basketball” shoes.

Not only do they look cooler than I could ever dream of at that age, (the Limited Too was the only version of cool that girls my age knew back then), but they have intense social lives.

I got home over break and my parents asked, “what are you up to tonight?” and as I hesitate on an answer, my little brother is texting (probably about cool plans) while also sprinting for the house phone when it rang. He knocked it out of my hands because “Christina, it’s going to be for me!”

Thanks Kev, way to rub it in. Within 10 minutes he was asking me for a ride to his buddy’s house a couple streets over and I was re-examining my social life. Oh well. I later joked with my parents that Kevin was way cooler than John or I ever were.

They didn’t explicitly agree, but they sure didn’t disagree. Love you too Mom and Dad. But it’s true. Plus, that night of watching a rental movie with my dog was really fun…right?

Even babies now are cooler than I was. I look at baby clothes’ sections at department stores and see dresses that are fancier and cuter than ones hanging in my closet. Clothes that make more of a statement than my one-snap, zip-up, sock-style onesies. Yep, even the eight month olds dress cooler than me.

I guess it’s just a different time. It’s scary to me that kids are already so focused on social acceptance, brands and popularity, but they are. So until I am “mom-age” and am able to decide how to dress my children, I will remain in this taboo period of being jealous of the coolness of kids while trying to find my own version of “cool.” Good luck to me, right? Maybe I’ll ask Kevin for advice.

I really hope that I am not the only one who feels this way, as it would make this column far more embarrassing than it already is. Drop a line or stop me on campus if you agree. And please, someone, even if you don’t agree you should pretend like you do…humor me.