"But still. It occured to me, not for the first time, that the groups I feel most comfortable with aren't ones I'm really a member of, and the groups that I feel a member of I tend to feel less in touch with than everyone else in them does."

Doesn't the fact that you feel comfortable with them and accepted by them make you a member of that group, even if there is an age difference ir something like that?
Having been homeschooled all my life, I have alot of friends (you) who are alot older or younger than me. But I feel like I belong with them and I get along with them so what does it matter if, say, the other members of that group have something else in common that I don't share with them? Doesn't the fact that I feel comfortable with them mean that it doesn't matter?

I had a dream about you last night.

M'eera