Tonight, I went to Reconciliation at my church for the Christmas season. The priest and I got to talking and he went on and on about “high school students, blah, blah, blah.” His niece is ‘my’ age and he knows from hanging out with her how hard it must be to grow up in this day and age, blah, blah, blah.
I just nodded in agreement, thinking, “Uhhh, high school was a long time ago for me.”
I’m often mistaken for being younger than I truly am. People make some really wild guesstimates.
One time I went to Church for my 28th birthday. When the Mass was over, the woman standing next to me, leaned over and beamed, “It’s so great to see an elementary school student here just by yourself, without your parents.” I was dumbfounded.
“Unh-unh,” I muttered. “Actually, I graduated from the high school ten years ago!”
That said, I’m used to getting stopped by security and carded.
When I started my new position as a product manager, I went with my manager to visit our client services team. They are in another building with strict security measures. My manager showed them her ID and started filling out paper work. I shuffled around my backpack looking for my wallet and ID. The security guard then said, “It’s OK, honey. As long as you’re with your mom, you’re fine.”
My manager looked up, bewildered. She’s tall, very fair, dirty blonde hair, and 37. “Did you say my daughter?” She was peeved.
I butted in. “Hi, I, uhhh, actually work for the bank. Here’s my ID.”
“I’M SO SORRY!” the security guard blurted. “You look so young!” She motioned toward my manager, “I wasn’t even paying attention to you.” She turned back to me, “I figured she was your mother, you look so young!” She waved at another security guard, “Angie, don’t this girl look young?”
Angie agreed. “Oh yeah, small little thing. You work for the bank? Jesus!”
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