Let's start off with a little backstory, shall we? I was at work just the other day and an older man came in. Of course, I asked how he was and greeted him as he walked in. The man said, "Oh I'm fine, just exhausted," and I responded, "Oh yeah, I hear ya." It was a pretty generic employee to customer conversation, that is until he responded to my statement of being exhausted with:

"You're tired? You're young. How could you be tired already? Just wait until you're my age."

I wanted to say a lot to this guy after he said that, but since he was the customer and I do, in fact, like having a job, I didn't say anything else and just gave him a little fake smile.

So why is it that young people can't be tired? At what point did we equate youth with a stress-free life?

I have many issues with what he said, the main one being that that guy knew nothing about me or my life, but he apparently knows that whatever I have going on in my life should not be exhausting or in any way stressful because I'm still young. The funny thing too is that all of this was happening while I was at work. It shouldn't be news to anyone that work is tiresome and at some points stressful.

Work is one of the number one things I hear people complain about. You barely ever hear people say, "Wow, I'm so excited to go to work today!" Most people go to work to make money and because it's really not an option to not have a job in the money hungry society we live in today. So, it's kind of ironic how I was being told I shouldn't be tired while I was working because work itself, regardless of age, is tiresome.

The stress of life does not discriminate against anyone.

Age is not even a factor when it comes to stress. Every single person has something in their lives that exhausts them or stresses them out, so to be told that I shouldn't be tired is comical to me. It seemed as though that man was belittling not only the stressors in my life, but he was belittling every tired, stressed out, young person out there. Whether it's school that is stressful (which it totally is), or work (which is also stressful), or just life in general, it still affects a person enough for them to be tired. My exhaustion has nothing to do with anyone else and I did not need that man's opinion on whether or not he thinks I should be tired or not, especially because they only thing he was going off of was how old I was.

So, to all you young, hard-working, stressed-out people, just know that you're allowed to have stress and you're allowed to have problems. Age is only but a number and that number does not show how many things you've gone through or are going through, it only shows how many years you have been alive. And to that older guy that doesn't agree, well, try walking in someone else's shoes before comparing your life to theirs, especially if that person you're comparing your life to is a total stranger to you, as I was.