Last week, we were having a conversation at work regarding how old we thought our coworkers were. We have a temp in our department that had no problem being brutally honest. For example, he told my 26 year old coworker that he thought that she was 34 because her face looked dry and a bit leathery.
I held my breath as he looked me over and settled on a number. I was thrilled when he guessed 25. I quickly thanked him and told him how handsome I think he is.
In my head, I still think that I am college aged. No older than 20. When I used to work with college students, I used to make the mistake of referring to people as "our age" though clearly I was out of touch with reality. Another example is that when I drive our minivan, I honestly believe that people see me driving and think that I must be borrowing my parents' van.
So the more I thought about it, I wondered when I might ever feel my age. I feel the pressures of being a parent, having a mortgage, making car payments, etc. However, it still is not enough to make me believe that I am 29 and really a grown-up.
Surely I am not the only adult who is in complete denial about what age they appear to be to the rest of the world.
7 comments:
There are days I look in the mirror and I literally think to myself, "How did this happen?!?!?". On any given day I firmly believe (somewhere in my demented brain) that I'm still between 17 and 23 years old. Is it coincidence that I was married at 24 and started blocking things out after that? Hmmm....
Just kidding, General!
If someone had been as brutally honest to me as the temp was to your co-worker I would have burst into tears.
I am 33 in biological years. However, until a few years ago I was guessed to be older than I am ("Paul you are the only 40 year old 22 year old I know"). But when I turned 30 (literally that day) I took the CFP exam (hello career, not just job), my wife was about 3 mos pregnant and I was waiting to go to closing on selling my first house and buying my first single family home. Since that day, I have known my age, and vacilated between aceptance and teenage rebellion.
I teach high school and parents ask me if I am old enough to drink alcohol. And I like it! I feel like a kid, but maybe bc I temporarily live at home. Like a kid. Like a LOSER kid. :( Rhonda, you should thank Grandma for the youthful skin! And Oil of Olay.
I was talking to a co-worker about another co-worker and I said, "Oh, I didn't know she was that old. I would have put her closer to my age!" He promptly said, "How old are you?" I said, "29 (I was almost 30 at the time). Oh, I guess she is only 31 which is pretty close to my age, huh?!?" That's when I realized that I am not a young as thought I was.
"Temporarily" live at home? I know someone who is in their 40s and is still "temporarily living at home.
I was buying beer the other day and the cashier asked for ID. He looked at it and said "WHOA!...you could totally pass for 21! You must be doing something right!"
It was 2:00 on a Friday afternoon...sure, I'm doing something right!
I'm 31.
You could pass for 25, I agree!
I spent years HATING the fact that people always thought I was younger than I was. Like the day when I was student teaching and the teacher on staff reprimanded me for using the microwave in the cafeteria, which was "NOT FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS!" Or when I was teaching in later years, and a substitute teacher stuck on hall duty stopped me and asked for a hall pass. But now that (GULP!!) forty is 4 years away I would kill for that :) But to be honest, I love my advancing age. I would never go back to BEING younger, just to LOOK younger, because I wouldn't get to be who I am now, doing the things I do now with the people I have in my life now.
-Nancy
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