"You're Just a Baby"

It's the most-oft repeated phrase I hear at work. Every day, sometimes multiple times a day. It's come up in different contexts:

him: "When did you graduate?"
me: "May."
him: "Oh, well then, you're just a baby."

me: "You need to go to the emergency room. You hit your head really hard."
her: "How would you know? You're just a baby."
me: "I may be a baby, but I've had six concussions."
her: "How does a baby get six concussions? There hasn't been enough time."

At first, I just found this funny. I'm not a baby. I graduated from college. People keep telling me how grown up I am. Then it hit me: no one tells real grown ups that. "Oh, it's nice to see you. Look how grown up you are, turning 40 and sending your kids to college."

Being at college, particularly a small, private school, where almost everyone is between 18 and 22, you tend to think of the upperclassmen as old and mature. "Oh, they're so smart and mature because they're a senior. They're 22." In that little bubble, since no one is older than that aside from the faculty and staff, who don't really even count as human beings, you tend to over mature the 22 year olds in your mind.

22? Not that old.

Not that this should be an excuse to be immature and irresponsible. College graduates are supposed to act like adults. The key word in that sentence, however, may be "act." We... well, I... don't really know how to do this. It's sort of like playing follow the leader. Some day we'll figure out how to do this on our own. We'll have acquired experience and be able to give good advice to others. Right now? It's ok if we're a bit confused. After all... we're just babies.