How Old Are You?

I've been camping so much these past few weeks that warm sheets and a comfortable pillow are starting to feel a little alien.

There's a strange thing with age. We measure it in years, but we already know that some people mature faster than others. Some people experience things earlier than others; for example, one person might not own a home or car for a very long time, while another person might have the responsibilities of such possessions much sooner.

I think that the prejudice generated by a person's age is similar to the prejudice that comes from a person's name. The image of a person called "Frederick" is very different from the image of a person called "Huwaidah". And so the image of an twenty-year-old person is different from that of a thirty-year-old person.

Prejudice rarely pays off. For example: I was twenty-one when I started my previous job, my co-worker was almost sixty. Our opinions differed as to what we would like to hear on the radio while working; I wanted to listen to Classic FM, while he wanted to listen to Garage music - probably the opposite of what you'd expect. He also had an all-singing, all-dancing mobile phone while mine still had a monochrome display.

Likewise, I've known some very mature teenagers and some incredibly childish adults.