apparently i'll appreciate it some day...

So I have always looked young for my age. The first time I really realized it was about a week before my mission when my sister told someone that I was going to Australia on my mission and the person, with a shocked look on her face, exclaimed, "I thought you were twelve!" (I was twenty-one). Nice. I guess people had asked me post-high school what high school I go to, but that wasn't too big of a deal. After all, I had only been out of high school for a few years at that time.

Another example. An acquaintance of mine was asking me the other day about my trip to Arizona and I told her I was going to my high school reunion. She assumed it was a five-year reunion and was very surprised to find out it was ten.

Working with the youth at church, this kind of thing is brought up often. I have been mistaken for one of them more than once. When we lived in Arizona I taught the sixteen and seventeen year-old sunday school class and then the fifteen and sixteen year-old class after that. In both classes the sunday school president came into the room (on more than one occasion) and asked where the teacher was. When I told him I was the teacher (I was at the front of the room with a lesson manual in my hands) he told me I looked just like one of them.

Then there was a couple of weeks ago when we were canning peaches with the girls for a mutual activity (for those who aren't familiar, the youth in our church are divided into groups by age for church classes, and those same groups get together on Wednesday evenings for activities, which we call mutual). The other leader who works with me told one of the girls (who is twelve) that she looks like she could be in college and that she, in fact, looks older than me. She went on to say that I actually look more like her age and she looks more like my age. (This girl's mom is three years older than me.)

My sister (who is nine years younger than me) always gets picked for being older than me when we stand side-by-side and ask people.

Sales people come to my door and when I answer they ask, "Are you parents here?" (Sometimes this can be nice if I don't want to talk to them. Saying no isn't technically lying, is it? Of course, it's also fun to tell them I'm the home owner to see their reactions.)

I guess the reason I am going on about all of this is because tonight (at mutual again) we went to a girl's house (who is turning twelve and will be joining our class) to welcome her. Her mom (whom I had never met) went around the room asking all of the girls how old they are. She skipped over the other leader but pointed at me and asked me age. I told her I am actually the adviser. So funny that she thought I'm twelve (I'm twenty-eight).

There are countless examples but I won't go on. I'm not bitter about it - I just think it's so funny.

In conclusion, I look young. And that's all I have to say about that.

{And I know that I still need to post about my fun Arizona trip. Hopefully tomorrow.}