Apr 23, 2010

Mistaken Identity

So, this week, for about the 10th time in the last year, I was mistaken for a teenager.  I went to the car dealership to get my tire looked at.  It was low earlier in the week and I just wanted to make sure that there was nothing seriously wrong with it.  The guy that initially helped me was obviously not excited about having to help me but then proceeded to treat me like an idiot.  Mostly I felt that this was because I was a "stupid girl" and didn't know anything about cars.  This has happened to me previously and I hate when people just assume that I'm not smart about cars because I'm young and I'm a girl.  There is no excuse for this ill treatment.
As I continued to wait for an extremely long period of time (another long story), I met a very nice lady named Lynette.  We had a great conversation as we discovered that we had the same car and her daughter went to Carson-Newman.  I happened to mention something about traveling for my job and she looked at me incredulously and said "You're old enough to have a job?".  I smiled and said I'm 25, almost 26. She didn't believe me.  She said she was GIVING me 18 but it really was more like 16 and that she was just thinking that it was nice to see a teenager who cared about her car.

This is not the first time this has happened.  Last year, just about this time, I was joining the gym in my hometown in SC.  They know who my parents are in there so I told them and the lady who owns the gym said "How old are you? I didn't know Vicki had a daughter that young..." This statement accomplishes one thing: slapping me and my mom in the face at the same time!! A backhanded compliment to me and one to my mom as well!

I guess maybe one day I'll enjoy it.  And in 20 years, when I'm 45, I'll be so happy to hear "I can't believe you're 45, I was GIVING you 35!"...

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