I can confidently say, I am a 34 year old woman. But even the highest confidence can be tested and I am no stranger. In my quest to further my education, I have encountered a wide variety of ages within our collegiate system. It seems that years of a poor economy and uncertain job security has sent the masses back to school. Daily observations of these mixed age classes has surfaced a distinct and rather annoying power struggle, specifically among females.
The 20-somethings. Although their wide-eyed approach to the world is refreshing, many I’ve encountered tend to have an overly confident yet ignorant sense of their surroundings. They are on track and anyone outside of their generation is either a teacher or “old”. They still gossip about everything, text incessantly, and have no idea how lucky they are to have their whole lives ahead of them. But within that group, there are dreams so big and passions so driven, that we could all take a lesson. And let’s not forget what it was like to have great skin!
The 30-somethings. From personal experience, this is truly a transitional period. Still close enough to remember your partying days, but far enough away to realize that you do indeed need more than 2 hours of sleep. For some a slight bitterness of our younger counterparts may set in and for others, well, we are just glad that made it out alive. This is also the age where you get more comfortable in your uncomfortable skin. We will never be 20 again, but we will hang onto our youth for whats its worth and with understanding that in our 40’s and beyond, we will have more to learn and much more to look forward to.
The 40-somethings and beyond. Now let me preface this by saying, this isn’t a blind grouping of all women over the age of 39. But from a lot of women I’ve met, there is a time in your life where those things that mattered so much when you were younger, no longer do. Its a perfect settling into who you are in your life, family, or even career. For some, that can hit at a much earlier age, but for many, its a kind of state of mind that can only be met with experience. For these women, their voice is a lot stronger than it was before and their opinions aren’t up for negotiation. Its a confidence that wisdom brings. At times, the whole world can seem like children and the understanding of that 20 year mind gets more confusing.
Although from my observations, it may seem easy to fall into a certain group, are we all really that different? And why at times do we seem to judge each other simply because we are from a different generation. The thing is, as women, we have more in common than we think. I think the thing that sometimes gets lost is that mutual respect. I never understood why younger people made fun of older people because they too, will be old one day. Then on the other hand it baffled me how older people act like they were never young once just trying to find a path of their own, on their own. So maybe its not fair to say its a power struggle, because what one of us may not (or no longer) have, the other can gain to learn (or remember). At the end of the day, we are all still women searching for a good life, respect, love and happiness.