The Age Experiment

Background/Hypothesis

What's in a number? What's in an age? Is it possible to make yourself forget how old you are? Is it possible to change your age? Korean's are quite strange about their age, and by strange I mean different than I. It's impossible to tell how old they are in the first place, and then they go and change the reality of their age through a cultural aging process. It makes me wonder a lot of things. For example, are they more pro-life since they become age one at birth? And when are you really legally able to drink, or buy cigarettes, or participate in other stupid activities that we are allowed to do when our age reaches a higher number? What is considered an adult? All these contemplations brought me to even more thoughts about age, however, this time in a more global fashion rather than a Korean-American thought process.
Why do we put so much weight on the answer to the question, "How old are you?" As we get older does age become more important, or less? What age we are largely determines who we hang out with, or who becomes our colleagues. But does it also determine how we are viewed. The age old saying "act your age" has strange connotations. When people first meet they tend to inquire about names, jobs, hobbies, living location, and age. However, when people reach a certain age it is considered rude to ask. When we are very young we break our age down to the halves and three-quarter marks. But what about in our mid-twenties to mid-thirties, when age isn't too disgraceful or embarrassing yet?
I conducted an experiment...not intentionally by any means, but I soon realized that the situation I was in was perfect to answer all my questions. I happen to be going into a weekend trip in which I would be meeting many new people, potentially from all over the world. I would see how long it would take for people to want to know my age. I was curious how important my age would be, or how it would reflect on who I was. I wanted to know how old people thought I was. My hopes were that the question would never come up and I planned to not ask the question unless asked myself. Could we make it through a whole weekend without feeling the need to define our age differences?

The Results

I made it through an entire 42 hours without anyone asking my age. I was truly impressed. This is when my experiment took an interesting turn. I decided to say my Korean age and see the reaction. The inquirer told me that I seemed 20 or 21. To my surprise, I was offended. And I didn't think age mattered to me. Seeming two or three years younger than I actually was, made me feel self-concious and that maybe I was acting immaturely. Age was only commented on two other times throughout the weekend. I was actually surprised. I also happened to be hanging out with an extraordinary breed of people, travelers, doers, go-getters... Maybe they all felt the same way about age as I did, unlike my Korean co-workers or my friends still in The States. Maybe they all thought I was crazy. Whatever the case, I learned a lot.
I have a new approach to age living in South Korea; where age seems more of a creation than authenticity. So how old do you feel? When I was young I wanted to be older, because with age comes wisdom, but as I get older sometimes I feel girlish, particularly when I fall into my foolish ways.

How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?