"Get On The School Bus!"

This is what a teacher screamed at me as I walked past the baseball stadium near my job. I was walking on my lunch break, and it just so happened that an afternoon baseball game had just ended. Hoards of middle school aged children were rushing towards me, so I picked up my pace to get out of their way. That's when the teacher stepped in front of me and scolded me. I told her that I wasn't a student and her face turned bright red as she apologized, saying "you just blended in with all the kids".


Growing up I was always told that I looked older than my age. I was always on the taller side and seemed to have mature features. This stopped when I entered college. In fact, it seems like the aging process stopped completely for me during those four years. When I emerged with my degree, I no longer had people guessing I was four or five years older than my actual age. Instead, I've been asked multiple times if I'm high school student (and now a middle school student??).


I know anyone over the age of 40 reading this blog is probably thinking I'm a brat for complaining about this, but I'm actually curious to how I can start to look more my age.


Should I start dressing more professionally? I actually wore a work appropriate skirt and top today, but I was still lumped in with a bunch of young teenagers. My office is very informal, so pantsuits and blazers are out of the question.

Are any of you ever mistaken for high school students? If you work in a job where dressing in stereotypical professional attires is not the norm, how do you take steps (appearance wise) to show that you're actually a college grad?

3 comments:

  1. Embrace it! I'm nearly 30 and I just stopped getting carded for R rated movies a few years ago. Yes, it is occasionally annoying as hell, but when you hit 50 and still look like you're just approaching 40, you'll be thanking your genes.

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  2. Wow, that must have been embarassing! I'm 24 years old, but according to a random lady I met at a store, I look 14-17. And I constantly get people thinking I'm around 18 or somewhere in that range.

    What I get tired of though is teenage boys hitting on me... like the checkout boy at the grocery store. So since I'm a poor judge of age myself, I tend to just ignore it.

    But people do always tell me that I'll appreciate looking so young one day. I guess for now I actually want to look my age though :)

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  3. I'm glad I'm not the only one!! haha

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