From 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind:

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?

I’d be however old I am right now.

One comment that drives me up a wall is “you’re so young.” I hear it all the time, and I’ve wondered when I’ll get old enough to stop hearing it. I’m not 21 anymore — I’m not even close — and the comment carries a connotation of “you’re so inexperienced” and “you don’t know enough to know what you’re talking about.”

None of this is true. There’s a part of me that wishes otherwise, but I live in the real world, not a fantasy of mine or anyone else’s desire.

But at the same time, I don’t want to get too old too quickly. I have a lot of things left that I want to do, and birthdays do “get” to me because they’re reminders of how much I have left to get done. I like being young enough to still have time, and to have enough flexibility to move my life in different directions. I’m not yet to the point where I feel ready to rest on my laurels.

So I’d like to be older, and I’d like to be younger.

I figure that the age I am now is likely to be the best place between the two. When I was twenty-five, I liked being twenty-five. When I was thirty, I liked being thirty. I’m still getting used to thirty-five, but it’s not as bad (or as good) as I’d thought it would be, which means that I’ll likely end up satisfied.

We’ll see what happens when I hit forty, but if past experience is any predictor of future performance, chances are I’ll be fine with that too.