CHEATING THE CALENDER?

It is a few days to my birthday. For a minute, in my imagination, I’m surrounded by different date of birth and now I cannot even tell which is the right one- was I born July 1st 1987, July 1st 1985, July 1st 1984 or maybe not July at all? Phew! All this confusion must be a result of the adjusting and re-adjustment of age to suit the norm, a confusion that exists only in my head, caused by my quest for an official age!

Have you ever heard about “Official age?” do you have one? No? Well, guess that makes the two of us, or are we too naïve to adjust our age or perhaps we lack the opportunity to? Official age refers to the figure that tells how old one is on record which may not necessarily be the real age. For instance, if you are seventeen years and want to enroll for a programme that requires applicants to be at least twenty one years of age, you in this case will shoot-up your age by four or five years to qualify. However, the trend is more popular among older people who cut down their age to suit a particular course- e.g political race, job application, celebrity life etc.

In the midst of the quest to be seen as older or younger, we end up even confusing ourselves as well as others. For example, one of my classmates told me she was born in 1982 and claimed to be 3years younger than her younger sister. I was perplexed when I read in her credentials that she is 23years, the same age as her younger sister of the same mother! Are facts and figures now being calculated up-side-down? Should we not question these issues more often to be sure those who we respect as right thinking members of the society are not gradually going nuts, calculating such an important date- birth date, in a deceptive manner?

Again we blame the society for this trend. After all, for instance, if our educational system is really effective and other factors put in place as it should be, no one will have to gain admission into university at the age of twenty-one and be faced with the urge to cut down his/her age by five in order to fit into criteria of being “sweet sixteen already in Uni.” Or in order to meet up one of the pre-requisite for working in a Bank and like-minded organization after graduation.

Remember the song "Age Ain't Nothing but a Number" by Aaliyah? It features lyrics of a girl wanting to date an older boy, saying that their ages don't matter. Well, today, we are not talking about relationship and age but change of age and us! Are we really cheating the calender or our intergrity? If you are asked “How old are you?” is there any record somewhere that will contradict the figure you give? Age is a number, which ever way you turn it- up or down it will not stop you from being you because the true answer still lies within you!