twenty-seven

Age: It's what separates the men from the boys.

Today is my 27th birthday. Given that it is also July 27th, this is officially the only day in my life that I turn the same age as my birth date. It's all downhill from here.

As I have gotten older I have observed several things about personalities at different ages. One of the things that has stuck out the most to me is that people really don't change as they get older. Let me explain what I mean.

Generally speaking, if you surround yourself with people who have a certain type of personality when you are in high school, you'll do the same after you graduate. If you let someone else determine your tastes in music, fashion, or anything else, you will probably continue letting others influence you. If you are in a popular or unpopular crowd at school age, you will probably stick with a similar type of crowd as an adult.

I used to think that adults were more or less impervious to peer pressure. That was before I had fully thought through the situation. I thought that since senior citizens aren't generally up on the latest trends that they must not care what others think. I found out this was wrong when I made the obvious observation that they were not being influenced by what was cool right now, but rather what the people they hung out with considered normal or cool. Sure, pulling your pants up to your armpits may not be the in look right now, but if all of a seventy-year-old man's closest friends wear clothes like that, he'll fit in to do that too.

Bringing this a bit closer to home, at twenty-seven I don't feel any less susceptible to peer pressure today than I did ten years ago. It's just that now most of my peers are in their thirties with kids.

So, the next time I am tempted to think about how easily manipulated teenagers are to what happens to be hot right now, I will try to remember that I'm probably not any different. Maybe I should work on that this year.