Recently, I met a guy for a shidduch "coffee date." At some point in the conversation I made reference to my age. If I recall accurately, he was lamenting his career choice (or lack thereof) and the fact that he's too old to go back to school. I think I said to him that he's still young and that he has his whole life ahead of him to think about. He insisted that he felt like he missed the boat.
"Really," I said, "I'm you're age, and I think I'm young."
He balked at that.
"What?! The shadchan told me a different age."
Amused and perplexed, I said, "Really? How old did she say I was?"
He said he thought I was a year younger than him, and he did not believe me.
"When's your birthday," he demanded.
My birthday had nothing to do with it. I was literally this close to asking him if it was a problem and maybe he just wanted to take me home.
Legit, how much did those handful of months matter to him? How much does age matter in general? Yes, it matters when it contributes to an age gap, and it seems to matter less when a girl is 5 years younger than a guy, but what happens when the girl is older than the guy?
It is becoming more and more common for guys to date girls that are older than they are. Apparently it makes sense because females tend to live longer. However, in general, guys mature later than girls, so is that gap even greater when the guy is younger than the girl?
When people ask me if I would date a guy younger than me, I don't hesitate to say yes. I know that a lot of girls see it as a negative, but I honestly think that in many cases, the younger and less seasoned a guy is, the more optimistic and less cynical he is. Experience counts for something, but that gap can easily be bridged if everything else works.
Anyway, age is just a number. Sometimes the number means the person physically shows sign of his/her age, but in so many scenarios, you would never know how old s/he was unless s/he told you. So, what does it really count for?
No comments:
Post a Comment