Prior Lake Blog

Is your mom or dad here?

A recent interaction I had with a repairman at my house kind of illustrates my life up to this point.

I was working from home while waiting for the last guy to come through and sign off on the repairs when the doorbell rang. I greeted the man warmly and confirmed his reason for being on my doorstep and invited him into my home so he could get his job done.
He then hesitated briefly and asked, “Is your mom or dad here?”

I was thrown off guard and just assumed he knew my parents from my last name. You know, because the Gores surname is as ubiquitous as Smith or Johnson. Who doesn’t know a Martin Gores? Alas, I did tell him that my parents were in fact not present. He then went on to explain their policy of not entering homes unless someone 18 or older is present.

The rest of our visit was a little awkward.

To be fair, I was wearing a baseball cap backward at the time, which no 30-year-old should ever do, and I hadn’t yet shaved that morning, so a couple of my facial hair patches might have been visible. Maybe I was disguised as a little younger than 30 years old, but this guy thought he was talking to a 16-year-old boy home on summer vacation.
I’ve been young for my age for as long as I can remember, and these kinds of things happen to me daily.

I remember even back in the seventh or eighth grade choir (required), Mrs. Hoeg placed me all the way at the end of the boys’ section, which is funny because that just happens to be right where the girls’ section started standing. Even my voice was young for my age. There was nothing more frustrating than answering the phone countless times and having people just jump into conversation thinking they were talking to my mom.

Nowadays, I get carded any time I want to buy an adult beverage, and if I’m meeting someone for the first time I have to tackle them to get them to notice me because they were “expecting somebody older.”
To which I bite my tongue to refrain from responding, “Oh that’s OK, I was expecting somebody smarter.”

It might sound like I’m complaining about having an appearance younger than I actually am – that’s because that’s exactly what I’m doing. My biggest fear is that I will be getting carded all my life. Right now it’s for Powerball tickets and Budweiser, but later in life I may be getting carded to prove my AARP status and get cheaper movie tickets.

I feel that appearing your true age has many advantages. You are taken more seriously than your younger likeness and, for the most part, treated more politely. Sales people will actually approach you in shopping stores. Fashion rules start to get thrown out the window, and personal eccentricities are met with greater tolerance.

I will admit that there are times when it’s nice to be perceived as younger than you actually are. Like, for instance, when you’re acting younger than you actually are, and it just appears that you're acting your age rather than being immature. And if someone catches you rocking out to KDWB with your car windows down at a stoplight, they don’t even think twice.

I guess if forced to answer the never-asked question, “Would you prefer to be mistaken for a younger person or looking like a true 30-year-old?” I would have to respond, “What does a 30-year-old look like?”

I’m 30 and I look a lot like me. I don’t think I look any younger than any other average 30-year-old. I have wrinkles coming in and hair going out. I just know where to look. So aside from my facial hair deficiency and the fact that I put my pants on both legs at the same time, I’m just like any other 30-year-old trying to finally graduate to the adult table at Thanksgiving and legally allow repairmen to enter my own home without a permission slip.