Age is Not the Only Factor in Your Life

Why exactly is age such an important factor? When an older man and a young woman are together, most people assume she's gold digging that old man. Or when an older man is at a newer club, they assume hes "rocking the cradle." What about in the work world? When an employer sees a 16 year old candidate and a 30 year old candidate, who are they more likely to choose? The sad fact is, Age is a largely discriminating factor against people in our world. Let's talk about the work world, as the social world can be a bit more confusing. As a 20, almost 21-year-old, I've had a job or two...or five, in my life. Granted these have mostly just been retail jobs or snack bar jobs, but it's difficult for young adults such as myself to find a more respectful job without already having our BA's or 10 years of experience using fax machines and medical reception training. Now, I don't want to give you the image that I'm applying for jobs I'm grossly under qualified for, but what about jobs that are supposed to be open for anyone?

This is a hard issue to prove, but it's still one I can argue. If I apply, which I have, for say a front-desk position at any branch hotel, and a 30 something man or woman also applies, its hard to believe that I'll get the job over the 30 something adult. Why? I have 5 years of customer service experience, I've a flexible schedule, and several other great factors that should make me a prime choice, but I'm passed over for someone whose older. The fact is that Age has the correlation of both experience and maturity. Now, I'm not going to argue that experience and age aren't unrelated, but they can be exclusive. Teenagers growing up during high school shootings, bomb threats, and diversity will learn a lot more about life than their parents might have. My parents never dealt with suicide, or bomb threats, or gay rights, or nearly half a dozen of the other stresses my friends and I faced in high school. And I know that I'm not alone. Plenty of teenagers and young adults are facing more difficult situations than their parents know how to deal with, so doesn't this raise our experience? Young adults are growing up so much faster and maturing at younger ages than ever before, yet we must still fight against the age stereotypes of Age equaling maturity. I know plenty of people my age, or a few years older, who have kids, pay all their own bills, work full time jobs while going to school full or part time. Their parents can't, wont, or don't help them out anymore, so aren't they on their own? Are they still considered "kids"? No, they aren't. They are adults, full prime mature and responsible adults, despite their age.

On the inverse, just because someone is 40 or 50, doesn't mean they are a font of maturity or responsibility. How many 40 something year old look back on their life with regret? Plenty. How many cheat on spouses, blow money recklessly or make huge mistakes only to have to pay enormous consequences? The fact is that just because these people are 40 or 50 doesn't make them impervious from mistakes, and it doesn't make adults who are 20 or 30 perfect either. In one job I had a year or two back, I worked for the president of a small electrical contracting company. The president was in his 60's, and was often very childish and immature about his actions. He would misplace papers, take random days off, and quite generally not run his company. But should something not get mailed, or misplaced, it was my fault because I was his assistant, and I made a young persons mistake. Well, needless to say I soon left that job, and walked away knowing that again, just because someone was 60, it doesn't make him right or me wrong. Age isn't a deciding factor when it comes to things, personalities and actions are.