Change adverse? On behalf of a generation that went from albums to apps, bring it on

I could only laugh at myself.

I was in the Tampa airport, standing at a self-serve kiosk or portal. It’s where you can get the printed baggage claim check and tag before you check your bags.

It wasn’t self-serve completely. There was an employee nearby to help customers. Quiet. Unassuming. Keep the line moving, please.

For the record, I had a lot in my hands – driver’s license, phone, carry-on bag. And I had just spent five days on a golf trip in Florida. I was tired, sore, unfocused, lethargic. OK. Enough excuses.

I was struggling at the portal, kiosk, or whatever it is called.

“Sir, put your driver’s license in the slot, not your phone,” she said with a slight smile that looked a lot like a frown. That look the younger generation gives to us mature folks when we stumble on technology issues.

No excuses. Yes. I was trying to cram my cell phone into the small slot that was made for a driver’s license or credit card. I can’t explain why. Maybe because the boarding pass was on my phone. Maybe because I was tired.

“Sorry,” I said. It was funny. I shared the story with my buddies. I figured one of them had witnessed it anyway.

Grandpa.

Old Uncle Joe.

Old School Fool.

That brief moment in the airport lived up to the stereotype that mature folks struggle with technology. We’re older than you so we are reluctant to change, progress, adapting to technology, right?

Sorry.

Wrong.

Here is what I wish I would have said that day at the airport, to the employee and anyone else nearby who gut a chuckle from my stumble:

Dear Cool, Young Smart People:

Don’t let the white hair, khaki pants and slip-on Skechers fool you. My generation and I are fine with change and technology. Change. That’s all we have been doing for the past 40 years of our lives. Change has been our constant.

We didn’t grow up with an iPad on our lap, or a cell phone in our pocket, or a wristwatch on our arm that monitors our steps, breathing patterns, blood pressure and calories.

We wrote on a typewriter in college. Emergency calls were made on a roadside phone booth. Or we knocked on a stranger’s door to use their land phone.

We have learned that, yes, we can stand in front of a microwave oven and it won’t make our eyes crossed or melt our jewelry.

We have bought 45s, vinyl albums, 8-tracks, cassettes and digital. Guess what? You know the answer. We listen been listening to the same ol’ music.

Change has been our constant.

We get by.

Sure, you may have to hook up our TVs and Wi-Fi. We are not confident with remote in hand. But we always watch the big game. Never miss one.

Once we lived in a simple world but there is nothing simple about the world nowadays.

Too many choices today. Gone are the days when it was this or that, low top or high top, vanilla or chocolate. You could flip a coin. Heads or tails.

You can laugh, roll your eyes, sigh. We have temporary lapses when we try to cram a big phone into a credit card slot. But we are fine with change and technology. We have experienced more change than you ever will. Bring it on. We are keeping up with the Jetsons. It’s not The Twilight Zone. But we are not Speed Racer.