A post that probably had nothing at all to do with me just reminded me of something I’ve been wanting to post about for awhile. But I think my friends Erica and Sam said it better than I can, so I’ll refer you to Erica’s post andSam’s response on the subject of ageism
All I’ll say is, if you really, really want to piss me off, tell me that your greater age somehow makes you more mature or wiser than me. I have watched people three times my age make the same dumbshit mistakes that my peers make, over and over again. I have been lectured on how to live my life be people that were puking their guts up at frat parties or wasting their brains on drugs at the age that I was establishing my career and planning my future. I have listened to the wisdom of those who had genuinely acquired it with their years, and I have learned from their wisdom even as my peers were were ignoring it and suffering the consequences. I have learned that while age brings wisdom, it doesn’t bring it to everyone – and those who believe themselves wise are the most foolish. I have been mocked for my decisions and confounded the expectations of the supposedly wise – not just through luck, but because I really did know what I was doing, thank you very much. For every aged font of wisdom and experience, I have seen ten stunted and dissapointed old husks who had destroyed their own spirit through decades of toiling under the same stupid misconceptions, and wanted nothing more than to see the young become as cynical as they.
So to all those who wear their age as a badge of pride to which you expect me to kowtow: fuck you. I’m not the kid you were. I’m probably nothing like the kids you knew. Stop projecting, it’s childish. I have a limited respect for the fact that you simply managed to survive this long, but in this day and age that’s hardly an accomplishment. Other than that the only way you will earn my respect is the same way everyone does: by displaying some signs of intelligence, humanity, wisdom, and humility. I have prospered this long by harvesting wisdom from whomever exhibited it, young or old, and I intend to keep thinking for myself and confounding self-procaimed sages until the day I die.
UPDATE: I’m not asking anyone to take my word for it. All I’m asking is that you evaluate the things I say objectively, without giving a thought to my age. The ironic thing is that some of the same people that fly off the handle about being “put in a box” will smugly assume that my words carry no weight solely because I’m “inexperienced”. If you would regard something I say as bullshit coming from your grandmother, then go ahead and think the same of it coming from me. But don’t discount what I have to say from the get-go simply because I’m young. That’s no different from ignoring what I have to say based on race, creed, or gender.
Your words carry weight with me.
I can relate. I don’t have as much problem with the same things you do because people usually presume me to be older than I am. Also I don’t debate much with people I don’t know, not because I’m afraid of being challenged but because I get sick of debating people who don’t know what they’re talking about and refuse to talk about anything else. However, I often make friends with returning education students students at school and it never fails that at some points they make reference to that fact that I’m young and therefore since they didn’t pay attention in college when they were young than I must not be either. It really annoys me. It also annoys me when they tie that with saying that that was because they were on their parents dollar, it must have been nice for them to be so spoiled but I’m not, and the fact that I’m paying for my education is also not the only reason that I am studious. The irony is that I have found most returning ed students to not do well in school at all, they may say that they’re are studious but they lack a lot of common sense. So many of them just cannot make the connection between what’s said in class and what they should be doing.
Another part of this feeling which you probably relate to is that I’ve never really fit in with people my age, especially teenagers. I just don’t have the same goals or interests as they.
Another part of this feeling which you probably relate to is that I’ve never really fit in with people my age, especially teenagers. I just don’t have the same goals or interests as they.
Oh my goodness yes. I was always mystified by my peers. I felt much more comfortable with adults. Ironically I feel like I understand them better now that I’m older, but I still have to shake my head sometimes.
If you don’t mind my asking, did you face circumstances that forced you to grow up fast, or were you just naturally precocious?
I suppose I was just naturally precocious. It’s really a product of both the way I was raised and the circumstances in my life. I was homeschooled, my parents always raised me to be independent, in a lot of ways my mother left me to myself at a rather young age. It’s a lot of things, and I couldn’t really point to something and say this is why I am the way I am, it’s just the way I’ve always been.
Although come to think of it it is understandable, I’m the first to say that sterotypes never come out of nothing and I can certainly see where those sort of stereotypes come from. The problem is when people won’t assimilate me with the fact that I’m *not* like others my age.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! ::Jumps around the room:: That’s exactly my view. I tried so hard to get out of the “you’re-too-young” stereotype for years – ever since I was about 13, I believe. Eventually I decided that if people want to put me in that box, then I do not have to relate to them. Period. End of story.