1. How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?
50 Questions Challenge
Age in its biological sense, signifies the number of years, months, days, hours and seconds of our very existence in this world. Agreed by consensus, our clock starts ticking the moment we exit the comfort of our mother’s womb, venturing into a new world of possibilities. The first few years see our feeble self struggling to adapt to the new environment, we discover new abilities, both physical and cognitive, and as months wear by we soon grow and develop into fully functional beings. Puberty hits and not long, the Venusian had their monthly struggles while the Martians had to learn to deal with their physical metamorphosis.
It is only in the first score years of our lives that the distinction between juniors and seniors were crystal clear, even if we were only a year apart. Remember those days when we have just graduated from primary school and entered secondary school? Those were the days that we felt we were physically and mentally superior to our younger Primary 6 counterparts despite the minimal age gap. This could be part-due to the physical effect of puberty, and the psychological effect of ‘growing up’ but as time wore on, these differences soon diminish.
Due to the effects of nature, and our mere exposure while growing up, we have formed a psychological link between age and maturity, wisdom and knowledge.
When I first read this question, the fictional society that similar to the movie In Time starring Justin Timberlake was painted in my head; a society where everyone stops aging at the age of 22 years old. A society where a 98 years old grandmother will look as attractive as her 26 years old grand daughter. It would probably lead to a different psychological link between age and maturity.
Leaving that idea aside for now, how old would I be if I did not know my age?
Chauvinism and ego aside, I would say given a topic for discussion, I could probably lay enough to convince someone that I am in my mid-30s. But what would give me away is my lack of experience in the “real working world” putting me back to the rightful age of early 20s.
If there is one thing this question has reminded me of, it is to value the experience of those older than us. Be it the baby boomers, Gen X or even Gen Y, we have alot to learn from each other.
Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it. - George Orwell
The moment we fail to humble ourselves,
The moment we get too caught up with ourselves,
The moment we are too proud to seek for alternative views,
will be the moment we close our doors at expanding our horizons. An opportunity lost at developing and growing into the seemingly wiser generation we imagine ourselves to be.
