Personal Definitions
April 22, 2008 – 9:54 pmThis, folks, is how I would like to view our twenties:
The top line is what most of the general public would view the decade of 20 through 29 to be and the bottom lines are how I additionally would like to view it. It’s funny how the older we get, the more vague we get in the description of our ages. Pre-birth, we are referred to by weeks and then once we are born, we are referred to by months until you reach about two years old (24 months) and then it’s years and half years, but school ages as well (elementary, middle schooler, high schooler, co-ed). By your twenties, it is broken down into early, mid, late but by the time you hit your thirties, it’s either early thirties or late thirties. Once you hit forty, well . . . it’s the forties and then the fifties and then, it’s just a countdown to when you can retire.
For now, I am still in my twenties and therefore, I choose to define myself as "late mid twenties". I understand that in my lovely diagram, I would be in the last year of my late mid twenties, but still in those "mid twenties" nonetheless. Funny thing about it, I am not all that concerned about getting older. Every year of my life since 22, things have gotten better and better. My purpose and my drive is growing stronger and more clear and I feel more alive and connected than I ever have before.
It is annoying when some teenager calls me "Lady" and not because she is being friendly, but because she recognizes that I am not two or three years older than her, but more like ten. It annoys me when a customer service individual calls me "ma’am" but I know that it’s a generic response. It annoys me when I am still carded for being in a bar, because while I am not pushing forty, clearly I do not look like I might be younger than 21. I didn’t even look like that when I wasn’t 21!
It’s a double-edged sword we face. I just wonder how to swing it in my favor.
