I've reached the stage where teenagers and twenty-somethings see me as something like a matriarch, or in some cases a person to be challenged, and I didn't ask them to. I do not intentionally present myself that way.
I work in an office that employees a lot of people and my team is almost all women, with the exception of one elderly man. All but three of the women are under 30, and most of them are under 25. I'm even a little older than our female supervisor.
They have taken to calling me "Ms. Jam." (not my real name) No one else gets called Ms. So-and-so, not even our supervisor who goes by her first name. The elderly guy is called by a cool, hip, shortened version on his first name. But me? I'm Ms. Jam.
I think my physical disabilities makes me seem older than I am, and I am the quiet and calm type. Those things probably add to a misperception. I dress modernly but modestly, and I have long hair that is almost always down and flowing, and does not go up into a granny bun. If it goes up, it's a messy bun, which my generation started and the newer ones just updated as they came along. My hair is currently natural color, with less than 20 percent grey.
I find it kind of funny, kind of annoying, and kind of an honor that they are seeing me this way.
It just dawned on me in the last few weeks how much older I seem to them. I don't feel there's that much of a gap, but they don't have the perspective of how quickly 20 years fly by. I could have sworn I was their age yesterday. I need patience with these young adults.
I work in an office that employees a lot of people and my team is almost all women, with the exception of one elderly man. All but three of the women are under 30, and most of them are under 25. I'm even a little older than our female supervisor.
They have taken to calling me "Ms. Jam." (not my real name) No one else gets called Ms. So-and-so, not even our supervisor who goes by her first name. The elderly guy is called by a cool, hip, shortened version on his first name. But me? I'm Ms. Jam.
I think my physical disabilities makes me seem older than I am, and I am the quiet and calm type. Those things probably add to a misperception. I dress modernly but modestly, and I have long hair that is almost always down and flowing, and does not go up into a granny bun. If it goes up, it's a messy bun, which my generation started and the newer ones just updated as they came along. My hair is currently natural color, with less than 20 percent grey.
I find it kind of funny, kind of annoying, and kind of an honor that they are seeing me this way.
It just dawned on me in the last few weeks how much older I seem to them. I don't feel there's that much of a gap, but they don't have the perspective of how quickly 20 years fly by. I could have sworn I was their age yesterday. I need patience with these young adults.
Last edited:
