I spent the second weekend of July in DC at my first Midsingles conference. For those not in the know, midsingles are those ranging in age from their later twenties to somewhere in their forties. The Midsingles movement is kind of a protest or uprising from singles that are aging out of the YSA program- we’re basically saying “We don’t want to be lumped in with 60 year olds!”
There appeared to be a few women pushing the latter age boundary at this conference, but they blended in much better than the older men that attended- it was a bit skeevy to be at a conference with men in their 50’s- the same age as my dad!
It turned out to be a fun weekend- I drove 3 hours down to Washington, PA (ironic, no?) where I ditched my car at a church building and rode the remaining 4 hours with a couple of galpals, Tracy and Jamie. Tracy travels all over the US to go to these conferences, but I certainly can’t afford that so I made an effort to go to this one- it’s the closest. We made good time and arrived in Alexandria, Virginia in the early evening and got checked in to our hotel and at the conference. The conference had arranged for us to eat at a Thai restaurant down by the water- I liked the atmosphere and some of the food was good but it didn’t mix well in my stomach. I did like this statue of Buddha (I studied Hindu art in an art history class a few semesters ago).
The humidity was something else that evening- it was worse than anything I’ve ever experienced in PA or CT, and that’s saying a lot! The air was basically a solid, and it doesn’t cool down at night, either. Blech! My hair became a solid, too!
Saturday we were split into groups for The Amazing Race, then we headed on the metro to the National Mall where we ran around to answer questions in our packets. I realize that the point of this was to get us meeting other people and to have fun, but I didn’t like the competitive aspect of it- my group was more focused on winning then on actually seeing anything. Most of them had already done DC or lived there, whereas I’d never been to DC before. Still, I did get to see a blur of DC- we ran through the Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and then the Smithsonian Museum of American History. It was neat to see capsules from space exploration, and I could have spent all day in the National Gallery of Art- it was so neat to see such old works like what I study at school. They even have some works by DaVinci. I do have to question storing such priceless treasures in DC- the humidity is not good for keeping things archival and it was a bit dank inside. I wonder how long things will last!
I didn’t get to see much at the Smithsonian, I would have loved to have seen more. You could spend a lot of time in there. I got to see C3P0! I also got to see the Star Spangled Banner (the huge flag that inspired Francis Scott Key during the war of 1812), that was pretty neat. There isn’t much left of it anymore- it’s disintegrating. It’s also a lot smaller now because pieces of it were taken for souvenirs back in the day (including one of the stars!).
We had sacrament meeting in a school auditorium on Sunday- there were several hundred people at the conference and we wouldn’t have fit with a ward. Apparently Mama Cass and Jim Morrison attended that school back in the day. Sacrament meeting was nice, we had some good speakers. Afterwards we had lunch in the cafeteria below. And then we headed out after saying goodbyes.
It was funny being among the youngest at a conference- normally it’s the other way around. There’s a different vibe too. At YSA conferences, the vibe is “We’re young, we’re gonna have fun and see what happens.” At this conference, it was almost like people were radiating “Singledom sucks and I want a spouse”.
So, you’re probably wondering if I met my match, and the answer is no. Like most conferences, I expanded my circle of galpals. I met some great girls from Florida- one I bonded with very well because we’re quite alike, and the other works for LDS Family Services. I had a long conversation with her about adoption, which is a topic I find very interesting- I’d like to adopt babies someday.
This conference lead me to ponder and think about topics that I hadn’t really thought about before. During the conference, I heard some truly horrible life stories from both men and women. I’m now in an age bracket where a lot of people have baggage, or in some cases, a very heavy load of personal baggage. When seeking a spouse, how much baggage is too much baggage? I have my own issues, but they pale in comparison to things that other people deal with. I’m also now in an age bracket where it’s highly likely that I could wind up with someone who has children already. Could I blend in with someone else’s family? Is is fair to me if someone else has been there, done that? And how old is too old? I’m usually dealing with guys that are too young. I’d like someone approximately my age, but what is “approximate”? Ultimately, the right person is the right person and I think I have a decent amount of patience to handle where life takes me, but there’s a lot of new things to think about. I’m just so thankful to have the Holy Ghost help me to know who I should associate with.
In all, I had a pretty fun weekend and found it worthwhile to go. I enjoy meeting people and there are often things said by the speakers that I find that I needed to hear. It’s good to get out of my shell. And my branch president didn’t bug me about this conference when I got back!
PS- I wound up rooming with a gal who's a sister to a gal I knew on my mission! We knew all the same people, it was crazy. Small world, no?
