I am a short, twenty-year-old female college student in the twenty-first century. What else could I possibly have working against me? Each of these characteristics on their own can create a struggle. I am lucky enough to have them all at the same time, none of which I can help.

I am short. This is an obvious disadvantage. I can never reach the top shelf and often find myself jumping for everything on my shopping list. My height was also always a disadvantage in sports. My vertical was not high enough, my arms were too short, you name it. I did not choose to be 5 foot 4 inches, but I can make the most of it.

I am currently twenty years old, which our society associates with ignorance. People hear the number twenty think that because I have less life experience, I have less intelligence. While life experience does credit a person, this does not mean that I know nothing about the world. For example, I am in an economics class right now; it is only an introductory course, but the information is not made up. When I try to apply the knowledge that I have gained in the class, people tend to look at me like I am crazy and, because I am only twenty, I do not know what I am talking about, even if I have the facts to back myself up. Society will never change its view of twenty-year-olds because, let’s face it, there are probably more of us who are ignorant than those of us who aren’t. But I can still make my voice heard, even if some people refuse to listen.

I am a female. Without getting into too much detail on one of societies major problems, being a female will always make my path harder. In the fight of male v. female, females will always be the underdogs, not because they are less intelligent or weaker, but because society has been formed around the white male. Because of this, nothing will ever be easy for me. The fight for a job, the fight for a raise, the fight to be heard, etc. will probably always favor men. My career goal is to be a high school history teacher and at my high school, every single one of my history teachers were men. This does not mean that it is impossible—because I also know of some female history teachers—it just means I have to work harder when the odds are against me.

I am a college student, which again has its own stereotype. People picture college students in general like we are out of a Hollywood film. They assume that we pull all-nighters at least three nights a week, struggle in school and spend Thursday thru Saturday drinking our problems away, bar hopping and partying. While this is an accurate scene for a large population of college students, it is not all of us. There are some people like me who get stuck in “all-nighters” and seem like we are struggling because we literally have more homework than a day allots time for. In all honesty, however, I am not struggling academically, it just feels that way and the amount of times I actually pull and all-nighter are few and far between because I value sleep. But because I have the label of a college student, when I complain about exhaustion people tend to have little sympathy because they think my life is one big party when in reality it is a never-ending to-do list.

Lastly, I live in the twenty-first century. This point goes hand in hand with being twenty. Twenty-year-old’s were treated differently in the past and I’m sure they will be treated differently in the future. Age seems to be a set constant. Society formed it this way. We are teens at thirteen, legal adults at eighteen and can legally drink at twenty-one. Those are set. Yet, we all know people who had more privileges at thirteen than we had at eighteen. This seems to relate directly to where we fall in the family line. Are we the oldest, youngest or in the middle? Age is such a set constant in legal terms, but is severely inconsistent when it comes to personal freedoms and privileges. Some generations of teens are more trusted than others. We are the generation of heightened technology, and I’m not sure if the invention of the cell phone and the fact that everyone has one should make our parents worry more or less about us. We are a phone call away to check in on and it is not a struggle to track down a phone to call 911 in an emergency, but texting and driving is a new fear in the back of parent’s heads. Being a part of this generation of rapidly growing technology will never change, but I can make the most of its flaws and privileges.

My age will be the only one of these to change and I have no power to increase or decrease the speed of my aging. I was gifted with these characteristics I view as struggles and I cannot control them, but I can make the most out of them. The odds are always beatable and the struggles are always worth it. Strength is built from struggle.