For whatever reason, people seem to find it very hard to identify my age. But it’s not a simple case of people think I’m older than I am or that people think I’m younger than I am, it’s that’s people end up thinking I’m all kind of ages.
One example is an old boss of mine. For whatever reason, he seemed to think I was roughly the same age as him, a man in his mid-forties. I was 23 at the time, but he made several references to us being similarly aged. Although, to preface that, I should also mention that he was exceptionally unintelligent, so perhaps that carries less weight.
Conversely, I was walking past a school on the way to work the other day and I stepped out of the way of an old woman to let her past. She thanked me and then asked if I went to that school. Presumably thinking me no older than 16. Then customers at work have described me as having a “beautiful child voice” which is nice, I suppose. A friend of mine says that they describe me as a “very youthful figure” and I like that quite a lot.
But then, I am frequently told that I dress like “an old man.” A person I didn’t really know at my work indicated that they thought I was “a lot” older than them, implying even that I was of another generation entirely. I was only five years older. But then, perhaps, from the younger perspective, that small span of time might seem much longer.
It’s interesting that people see me as so many different ages. But, then, I can’t blame people I find it very hard to identify a person’s age. I personally can only guess within twenty-years – even then, it’s tough. People age at different speeds, so I don’t think its really that easy to recognise age after all.
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