[databus]

A couple years ago, as a happily married 35 year old, I took a few math and physics classes for fun at a nearby community college.

I purposely would not talk to the younger crowd for exactly this "Creepy" issue. Luckily there were a few older students around that I could talk with.

I found after a few classes that the younger people (especially home-schoolers) who had real interest in the technical subjects would seek you out in the math and science labs. I ended up being friends with a few of these students, to the point where they would ask to sync class schedules so that we could work on projects together. (Males only; there were some smart females in my classes, but for a variety of reasons I had as little to do with them as possible.)

It seems kind of unfair that a person feels compelled to distance themselves from like-minded people, just because of an age difference.