On Being Too Old

Take it from someone who is nearer to rounding out her third decade than celebrating her escape from teen-dom. If entry-level pay, video posts, and group work sound appealing, you’re probably not too old to apply and enjoy everything this fellowship has to offer. Particularly, the people.

The people make the experience. I had no idea when I accepted, but it turns out that the 30 other fellows with whom I get to share this year are the exact 30 people with whom I would have wanted to get that chance. We have our differences, of course. We also have our similarities. Most importantly, we learn from each other.

For example, two days ago I learned that the phrase “What’s Gucci?” has nothing to do with the Italian fashion designer. I’m told that the appropriate response would have been to tell my friend where and when to meet up with us for lunch.* ::????:: Two months ago, when my group was establishing some ground rules, I also learned the phrase “be 100.” My sources tell me this phrase developed out of an emoticon – not as a wish to be older, but as a reminder to give it your all. Before Challenge, my emoticon vocabularly contained only 4 characters – happy face, frown face, backslash face, and winky face. Now, it’s expanding… slowly and cautiously. For a socio/historical linguist, this is fascinating stuff. For everyone else, this is straight up mind-boggling. How did I not know? How was I supposed to know?

What I’m trying to say here is – it goes both ways. You need them like they need you. Also, it’s better to bring something different than to be like most everyone else. So if you think you might be a decade removed and worry about spending a year working as peers with recent college graduates, stop it. Your experiences and blindspots, paired with your fellow fellows’ experiences and blindspots will make your cohort way more dyamic and a lot more empathetic.

*For the record, three out of the five group members thought as I did. We three were also closer to rounding up than rounding down our closest decade. So, it’s not just me! 🙂