Sunday Poser #147 – Act My Age

Published on by Yinglan

Do you always act your age?

What is your opinion about acting your age? Do you conform to the expectations of others around you, even family and friends? Or you do you? What gives you joy?

This post will be conjoined with a thought that’s been on my mind for a while. I thought about writing a separate post for it but it ended up too short and fortunately, it’s related to this topic.

I am in my final month of being 31-years-old. That’s right, in a month, that number will tick up and I will have made another revolution around sun. Yet, people – family, co-workers, and even strangers – seem to look at me like an exception.

I’ve been learning a new language at lightning speed, mom said, “oh because you’re young.”

I can climb 9 floors of stairs at work (though I can’t now), my co-workers said, “oh because you’re young.”

I can immerse into the American society, my aunts and uncles said, “Oh because you came here at a young age.”

I hate this phrase, “because you’re young,” because guess what, I’m not young. Young is what you call a teen or someone in their early 20’s. Once a person turns 30’s, I don’t think they can be classified as “young”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not calling myself or anyone over 30 old, I’m just saying we are not young anymore yet we are not old either. We’re somewhere in between transitioning from young to old. You can disagree all you want but when you’re 30, you can feel changes happening in your body.

To answer this week’s Sunday Poser, no, I don’t always act my age. I often try to act older than I am because of my appearance. People don’t treat you the same when you have a face of a child. Unfortunately, people are naturally bias, no matter how hard we work to suppress the urge.

Besides, when you’ve been forced to grow up at a tender age, you have no choice but to become more mature than your age counterparts.

#SundayPoser

10 thoughts on “Sunday Poser #147 – Act My Age”

  1. I personally like being called young despite being 27, funny thing with me no matter how young I was, I always felt old and compared myself to what age I used to be, when I was a teen I felt old and compared myself to the child I used to be and so on. I been called old by a 22 year old recently, not fun and I did not see 5 years as a big difference 🤣

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  3. Good post.
    My first job was working alongside pensioners, in fact my Mum was the youngest on the staff and she was in her 40s at the time. I became independent at 16 due to family issues, and always seem to be the one people turn to to help solve their problems (not that I mind, if I can help, I will). I remember thinking at 16 that at the turn of the millennium, I’d be 44 which didn’t really worry me. Now that is 23 years ago, and I’m still not worried, though getting old sucks as things start to fail, the body can’t do what the mind would like it to, and although I’m tired, I don’t sleep well. We used to call ourselves UTWs (Under Training Wrinklies) before we reached 66 and officially state pensioners. Now we are just KOF……. knackered old farts!
    Enjoy your age, whatever it is, as it ain’t going backwards!

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  4. I get you Yinglan. Instead of applauding your capabilities, they just utter the banal phrase; That you are young. You are half my age, so too me you are young, but not young persé. Trying to act older than your age is not easy but I guess the responsibilities you are shouldering is helping you do that. My advice is to act young and silly once in a while because one does grow old fast.
    Thanks for sharing your thoughts my friend

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    1. I feel some of my co-workers are trying to bring out the youth in me by having these quarterly departmental activities. I agree, it’s good to act young and silly once in a while.

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