I’ve always looked older than I am. In high school I was often mistaken for a teacher and at Furman I was often mistaken for a professor. I guess there’s something about a receding hairline at age 18 and a full beard that would tend to do that. At some points in my life, this had been an advantage. At others, not so much.
In the past several months I’ve had even more people thinking I’m older than I am. I’ve had two comments from fellow singers, and I’ve received senior discounts at least three times. I’ll take the discounts, but I gave grief to my colleagues who were so misjudging.
Sometimes I have a hard time judging age. For example, today I was talking to someone whom I’ve known for several years, and thought to be a bit older than me. I come to find out this person is the same age as I am. (And I hope this person doesn’t read this blog!)
I guess it’s just that there are some of us who do look our age (or slightly beyond.) When we encounter someone else our age who looks our age, we think we can’t possibly be that old. It’s all just part of reconciling the fact that we are aging.
Now where’s my bottle of Grecian formula….