LIVING: What's my age again???

Tonight I went to WT for the National Society of Leadership and Success orientation meeting.  I'd been looking forward to it all week and was really excited. 

 However, as I pulled into the parking lot I began to feel apprehensive about the whole thing.  I started agonizing over the differences in age, career status, education , and life experience between me and the other members (and we aren't even going to discuss body type, shape, or condition!!!). Though we are all students, most are completing their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year while this is my 10th in  higher education!  I told myself,  "I have no business going to this meeting, I should just turn around and go home."  I wanted to, but my inner rebel gently reminded me that my mom went back to college when she was in her 40s.  She was incredibly active in campus life, and loved every second of it.  Well, if she can do it, I can do it!

 
I arrived to the meeting (on time, hallelujah!) and found a place to sit.  There were 40-50 students there, and most were 19-23 years old.  I saw a couple (and I do mean 2) people who appeared to be close to my age.  For the first time in several years I was truly grateful that I look so much younger than I actually am. No one seemed to notice how out of place I felt, and I was able to settle in and enjoy the orientation.  After the initial presentation, we were divided into groups to begin our SNT (Success Networking Team) sessions.  We went around the group an introduced ourselves (name, major, place of birth).  All of the "kids" (how old am I?) were juniors and seniors in my group.  When I told them that I had a bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering and was working on my MBA, several of them were noticeably surprised. I was very pleased that no one had immediately tagged me as the old woman in the group.  The purpose of the SNT was to discuss our short-term goals and help each other determine ways in which to achieve them.   All in all, in was very enjoyable.

Then came the closing remarks.  The orientation leader got up and said, "One of the great things about this organization is the diversity that we have among members.  Nowhere on campus will you find a group this diverse..."  I nodded in agreement.  Even in my small group I had noticed that we had an even mix of gender, race, national origin, and major.  Many other students were also nodding their heads around the room.  The speaker continued, "We have a sampling from every group here at WTAMU.  Does anyone know what the average AGE of students at WTAMU is?"

Uh oh...  Someone said, "25", and the speaker replied, "That's correct!  25 is the average age, but LOOK at the diverse ages within this group!  We cover every age group."  I looked around the room, and again, only saw 2 others that looked even remotely close to my age.  I quickly did some super human math and determined that the average age of our group was 21 (with a fake ID), neglecting the 3 "old" outliers in the group. I tuned back in to the closing remarks only to hear him say, "It's important for us to understand how much we can learn from people of different age groups, and it says a lot that we are all represented here..." SERIOUSLY?  He was still talking about it?  He talked for another minute or so about age diversity, then released us.  I was shocked that someone giving an orientation for a leadership society could have fumbled the diversity conversation so badly. Especially when one considers that we legitimately had a diverse group.

I quickly left so I could go pick up some wrinkle cream and granny panties. I think I'll have some Oval-tine at bedtime and pull out my abacus to finish up my accounting homework.

Goodnight all...

Old Lady Crawford