Tim’s Bit: Tirades on our stupidest things. . . is a new web-exclusive column featuring Tim Mottishaw’s comedic tirades on some of our humanity’s dumbest problems, with regards to culture, society and politics. Read more Tim’s Bit here!
[dropcap]M[/dropcap]y birthday was a couple weeks ago; a day that often makes me being a bit pensive. My birthday is when I decide to try something new, and modify something in my life I am not a fan of. This year I’ve decided to take up yoga, and the thing I’m modifying is the use of an age in numbers.
A birthday is an odd occasion, when you consider it. It’s sort of counter-cultural. Most people celebrate it with a social gathering of some kind. Some people have grand parties and make big deals about their birthdays. I, myself, try to do an activity (This year I was lucky enough to be in Australia and went hiking in Springbrook).
Though, it’s odd how we hold these parties to celebrate ‘me’ and ‘how old I am,’ and then for the rest of the year we hear nothing but criticisms about how old or young we are.
As kids we want nothing more than to ‘be a big kid.’ As a teen we continue that struggle to be older because hormones get the better of us, and in the end we have no idea what we want or know. These are really the only times in our lives when we have an excuse for stupidity. Then we turn 18: we can drive, vote, and fight in most countries. By 21, most people across the globe can vote, drink, and all the rest of it. At 25, the UN stops statistically counting you as a youth, and insurance companies deem you worthy of a new charging scheme.
Then what? Nothing. Not one ‘special occasion’ that has anything to do with your age until maybe 50, though usually the next big number is 65, when you retire.
I think that age is what we use to categorize so much we forget that it is only an indication of how long we have circled the sun.
There are forty years of stressing about perceiving yourself as too old, striving to be younger, and always feeling pressure to modify the decade you are actually in: 30 is the new 20, 40 is the new 30. Why? Perhaps it has to do with the financial dynamics of our current generation. More people are staying at home later in life because it’s simply too damn expensive to move out. If my parents lived in Vancouver, I would gladly live with them. Also, because we are now living longer, the idea of doing everything while you can is not as important as when our parents or grandparents were younger.
I blame our weird obsession with the actual age in years. I think that age is what we use to categorize so much we forget that it is only an indication of how long we have circled the sun.
I don’t own a car, I don’t have a boyfriend, I don’t have kids, I don’t own a home. I love and read comics, I have a love for Superman and the Flash. I love hiking, swimming, the beach, and travelling. I am in my third year of university, and my biggest consumption outside of school and work is my Star Wars and Dungeons & Dragons game. How old do you think I am?
Here’s the follow up. Why does it matter exactly how old I am? Because I may not be acting my age? Because I need to ‘grow up?’ Because my post-secondary education might be maturing me too fast? Who decides what is too old for something or too young? If it is agreed that we are all adults after 25 then why do we count after that? The answer is we don’t need to.
We are conditioned to think that ‘X’ years of age equals ‘Y’ in life events. Yet most of our parents and grandparents who had those life events and socially determined what we are expected to accomplish are the first ones to now tell you that ages 21 to 25 are too early to get married. Until the ’50s, 16 was considered old to get married, and people didn’t often live past 60.
I’m done counting. I will not tell anyone else my age. I have removed it from all my social media and will simply not let it impact me any more. If apps or websites that are not legal documents require an age I will input how old I feel I am.
After all, you are only as old as you feel.
