Being Called Young

Now that I have graduated from college and working in environments with wide ranges of ages, I get called young…a lot.

Not gonna lie, it bothered me so much. When you think of young, you think of someone who is inexperienced and just has a lot to learn. The human in me wanted to shout to them that I probably experienced close to what they have if not as much as them. I think what upset me so much is that they saw me as someone who had a lot to experience to understand what they understood, without knowing that I had experienced quite a bit.

I am going, to be honest with you, it has taken me a long time to not think I had the worst life ever and that no one could possibly understand or go through what I went through (or even go through worst stuff, what a concept ha). I also think it had to do with being a kid who had to go through adult stuff, so naturally, the kid in me was going to see life like that.

After being called young so many times, I got to the point of embracing it. I do naturally seem more put together that people don’t expect my life to be what it has been. Also, I AM YOUNG. I can still chase after my dreams (even though I don’t think you can ever be too old to do that) without people thinking I am crazy. I look and feel better than I ever have. I’m not tied down. I’m in my prime. Now when people say I am young or a baby (which happens on a daily basis now) I embrace it.

I used to get obsessed with one person, whether it be a character from a show or the celebrity that played that part. I would in a way try to make me like them. This was in the heart of the death and trauma where I didn’t know who I was as a person. Since I liked who the character was as a person, I decided I wanted to be them so that’s how I acted or lived my life until the next obsession came. I know my family can probably remember that stage of Logan (also thanks fam for loving me through that rough stage of mine). Everyone is different, so I never could be like them but I didn’t get that in my brain until many years later. Also, I learned what made me different from others didn’t make me ugly or unlovable.

I try not to focus too much on age (which is HARD for me), whether it be my age or the age of others. I have so many qualities of different generations from being raised by people in their fifties and sixties but in the time and generation that I did. I am also around younger people, so I’m trying to embrace the younger culture as well (which is making me feel so old).

I categorize everything, which means it is hard for me not to categorize myself or others even. I’ve been working on letting go and being less serious. People are going to put you in a group, whether that group is accurate or not.

I’ve gotten to the point where I am going to be me no matter what group or label someone puts on me. People are going to love me. People are going to hate me. I am me 🙂