Age is something I have been thinking about a lot lately. I have been 22 for just over a month now. In the grand scheme of things, I am fairly young. However, we have recently taken on a team of interns at work, and for the first time I am finding myself unable to relate with those younger than me. A few of our interns are under 18, and I cannot believe how differently we think. This has been incredibly eye opening because it has been the first time that I have found myself on the adult side of the equation.

At the same time, I am also the youngest person on my team. There is one other person that is close to my age, and then after that most of my team is at least six years older than me. While the interns make me feel old, the staff makes me feel like a child. This has been an interesting dynamic to work through, and this week another wrench was thrown into the equation. We recently brought on a new intern and she has been great. She is responsive, knowledgeable and helpful. I found out this week that she is older than me. This has really challenged my concept of age and power. Generally, we associate the progression of age with the progression of power. This concept is so infinitely ingrained into my brain that I refuse to disclose my age to this intern. This might be the wrong way of looking at this, but I feel like if she found out that she is older than me, that she would no longer respect me.

This is a societal issue that has been deeply ingrained into brains. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again- Millennials are completely changing the structure of our workforce. Startup culture has encouraged younger people to disregard the traditional corporate ladder structure of progressing in a career. We see younger and younger people starting their own companies and seeing success in their 20’s instead of working their way up in a company. This is exciting for those of us that do not want to wait to start our careers. For the younger people out there, please see this as a note of encouragement. Your opportunities are endless. At the end of the day, age really is just a number.

-          Bria