Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Showing My Age, Attempt 2
Okay, so lets try this again.
Apparently I've always looked older than I am. It's not so much a case of I'm trapped in an old man's wrinkelly, grey body, but more just the way I talk and carry myself. It's never been something that worried me much - if nothing else, it's meant I've hardly ever been carded (something that was really handy before I was 18, and has made things less annoying since then). I've never been particularrly concerned about getting older (it's just something that happens). Even turning 24, which had been the biggest freak-out age in my head ("I know people who are 24! They're mature and grown up and married and have houses and stuff! I'm not any of that yet! Um, well, I'm not that grown up yet at least..."), has turned out to be a lot less of a worry than I was expecting. Although I am still a bit concerned that I won't be able to tick the "18-24" age box anymore.
Interestingly, Karina has the opposite problem. She often has telemarketers asking her if they can speak to her mummy or daddy. When we started dating, people used to ask her how much older then her I was, and wouldn't believe her when she answered "4 months".
But last night I discovered that maybe this phenomom is worse than I knew. I was at scouts (I'm a scout leader, and have been since I was 17), talking to a new guy who's planning on becoming a leader. He's 19, at uni and generally pretty cool. He made some comment about how he was getting older, and couldn't quite believe he was turning 20 this year. I said something like "yeah, how do you think I feel, I'm turning 25 this year".
He looked at me strangely for a second and then said "um, er, ah, um. Don't take this the wrong way, but I thought you were about 30." He managed to say it in the least offensive way possible (not that I would have been anyway), but kind of ruined it when a bit later he asked if I was a leader because I had a kid in the troop (these are people aged 11-15).
Apparently I've always looked older than I am. It's not so much a case of I'm trapped in an old man's wrinkelly, grey body, but more just the way I talk and carry myself. It's never been something that worried me much - if nothing else, it's meant I've hardly ever been carded (something that was really handy before I was 18, and has made things less annoying since then). I've never been particularrly concerned about getting older (it's just something that happens). Even turning 24, which had been the biggest freak-out age in my head ("I know people who are 24! They're mature and grown up and married and have houses and stuff! I'm not any of that yet! Um, well, I'm not that grown up yet at least..."), has turned out to be a lot less of a worry than I was expecting. Although I am still a bit concerned that I won't be able to tick the "18-24" age box anymore.
Interestingly, Karina has the opposite problem. She often has telemarketers asking her if they can speak to her mummy or daddy. When we started dating, people used to ask her how much older then her I was, and wouldn't believe her when she answered "4 months".
But last night I discovered that maybe this phenomom is worse than I knew. I was at scouts (I'm a scout leader, and have been since I was 17), talking to a new guy who's planning on becoming a leader. He's 19, at uni and generally pretty cool. He made some comment about how he was getting older, and couldn't quite believe he was turning 20 this year. I said something like "yeah, how do you think I feel, I'm turning 25 this year".
He looked at me strangely for a second and then said "um, er, ah, um. Don't take this the wrong way, but I thought you were about 30." He managed to say it in the least offensive way possible (not that I would have been anyway), but kind of ruined it when a bit later he asked if I was a leader because I had a kid in the troop (these are people aged 11-15).
# posted by Simon Dugard @ 11:55 am 
