Among close friends, I have been called “Mom,” “Momma Bear,” and now “Grandma.” It’s not because I’m older or have an actual child but because of my caring, cookie-baking demeanor.

I always carry a Mary Poppins-style bag with tissues, napkins, scissors, tape, snacks (anything someone might need but left at home), and I work at the local elementary school. I am my friend group's motherly figure who takes care of stragglers, listens to your problems, and loves hanging out with kids (real children, but also my friends who act like children).

As the oldest of three sisters, I have always been like a second mother in my family. From cooking dinner to cleaning the house to tucking the kids in bed, I have been happy to play that role. But after spending this summer at home, I have come to realize that I am also quite like a grandma in the way of being severely out of touch with pop culture. At Colgate, I listen to my own music on iTunes, not the radio or Spotify, so I almost never recognize the songs playing at parties. I rarely check Facebook since I see my friends every day, and we share whatever news we have at "family dinner," and I do not use Twitter or Pinterest or anything like that. Thus, much of what my contemporaries, as well as younger people, say or reference is lost on me. My younger sister starts most conversations with "Have you seen that Vine where -" and I cut her off immediately because there is a 99.9 percent chance I have not seen that Vine. And then she makes me search it on YouTube. One of them was just a bunch of umbrellas flying around on a beach to an aggressive AWOLNATION song ..I was utterly lost. If only I were a cool grandma like Baddie Winkle, maybe then I would understand teenagers.

I prefer to write letters to people rather than emails, I choose paper books as opposed to e-readers, and I adore vintage films from the '50s and '60s. I would describe my personal aesthetic as essentially Audrey Hepburn circa 1955 with some Nancy Drew thrown in -- "classic" some would call it. Basically, I love anything that can be deemed "vintage," and this tends to translate to "outdated."

However, I'm not as behind as my actual grandparents; I keep up with social media trends and know how to use my iPhone. I just prefer most things the old-fashioned way because change is stressful. Currently, there is a little alert message on my laptop screen urging me to update to Windows 10 and here I go closing it again because I just got the hang of Windows 8.

My youngest sister is at the age where bat and bar mitzvahs are the hottest events of the season and if you are a 13-year-old who doesn’t know how to “whip” or “nae nae,” you’re in for some serious ridicule come homeroom on Monday. Recently, I watched her do the dance to the entire song “Watch Me” by Silentó, and my face was a mixture of wonder and horror. Her favorite song right now is “679” by Fetty Wap - a song I had never heard until she played it in the car while I was driving. “I got a Glock in my ‘rari,” is one of the lines she sang. I asked her if she knew what either of those words meant ... she did not and followed it up with a nice “Whatever.”

It’s incredibly strange to me the kinds of music and TV shows that younger generations are exposed to now, as well as the slang terms I so often hear like "on fleek" and "sips tea," to name a couple. I completely understand how my parents probably feel and how my grandparents definitely feel, which is frightening since I’m only nineteen. However, I think I’m comfortable with my grandma status because it just means I’m getting over all the concern of being “cool.” People reach this stage at different ages, and while mine has arrived earlier than expected, I do not wish to whip, nae nae, or “do the stanky leg” any time soon, so it’s okay with me. I am perfectly happy to read my Truman Capote novel and sip tea...did I use that right?