I
am a 26 year old single working professional female who owns her own car and home. A statement like this leads many people automatically make assumptions about who I am as a person. By this point I’ve gotten them all. The “good for you” encouragement pep talks, the “it will happen someday” smiles, the questioning “You bought a house? I didn’t know you got married?” looks and of course my favorite “Aren’t you a cute little girl playing house without a man” winks. All of these, while sometimes well intentioned, can drive me a little crazy.
We’ve all heard the saying of not judging a book by it’s cover, but how many of us actually listen to it? When’s the last time you stopped yourself from making a snap decision about a person because they did one thing that annoyed you or looked too young to obviously be worth having a three hour conversation with or consider talking to them about something beyond flirty innuendo.
No, I’m not married or in a relationship. No, I don’t have children and I’m not in a rush to have them right now. Yes, I love working and having my personal space, but no I’m not “playing” this is my real life. All of this doesn’t mean that I don’t want a loving relationship with the right guy, that I don’t have maternal instincts or that I don’t want my life filled with personal adventures and laughs for friends. They are high level facts that if you take the time and dig past you’ll see that they don’t give a full picture of who I am as a person.
Before I go any further, I have got to say that by no means am I exempting myself from this lesson. I too need to make sure I’m not making snap judgements just the same as everyone else. The place to start for me? Thinking about all the things I dislike people judging me for.
So what’s my little declaration to the world? Get to know me, not my age or my cup size. What I’ve experienced in my 26 years might be as much as someone a decade older than me. The amount of the birthdays we’ve had doesn’t determine who are, it’s the events in between them that gives us our true age. And yes, I am a woman. A fact I’m pretty damn proud of, not because of the a fore mentioned female attributes, but because it’s part of who I am. Yes, I love sports and leaving my clothes on the floor, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love doing my hair or wearing the color purple just as much. Being 26 and a woman is just another piece of the puzzle and doesn’t fully describe me so don’t try to fit me in a mould because I guarantee you’ll be the only one disappointed.
So folks, if you want to judge me, spend some time getting to know me and then base your judgements on that. I promise to return the treatment. If we are all going to get a long a little better in this crazy world, isn’t it worth taking the time to get to know the people we’re sharing it with?