Growing up I was always more mature than everyone else my age. It took me awhile to learn how to be a teenager honestly. It’s funny my grandfather used to tell me that I was born into the wrong generation. If only he could see me now.
At 16 I got my first job, working minimum wage making pizzas. I didn’t have to get a job. My parents weren’t making me, they would have paid for everything if I would have let them. But I was tired of being dependent on them for everything. So I got my job and got raises and worked my way up the ladder. Then I became a manager at 17 years old. So at 18, I took another job and got a fresh start in another management position. I loved it, at first.
But here’s the thing about being 18 but looking 24, everybody assumes you’re 24 and when they find out differently, their whole attitude towards you changes, or at least that’s how it was for me. I went into work every day and busted my butt. I had time-management skills, an attitude not to be messed with and respect for every single person in the building, whether they were younger or older than me it didn’t matter.
Everybody had respect for me until they found out my age. Respect is something that is earned not given, this I’ve known for quite some time now. But humans are fickle and in the blink of an eye all of the respect I had spent months earning vanished, all because of my age.
What difference does it make if I am 18 or 24? It doesn’t. All of the adults became very angry with me because they have 20 years on me yet I am their boss. Me, a child. But here’s the thing. I’m not a child.
I am just as much of an adult as you are. Yes, I am 18 but I work my butt off every day proving that I have what it takes to run a restaurant, proving that I have all the skills necessary to be your boss. It isn’t my fault that I have the drive to do bigger and better things.
I get that situations happen that leaves 30 to 40-year-olds working in fast food, this isn’t me trying to disrespect the people doing what it takes to survive in this world, but just because you’re 30 and working in fast food does not give you the right to disrespect me because of my age.
Show an 18-year-old coworker the same respect you would show the CEO of the company. I am so tired of people putting me down and telling me that I can’t do something because of how old I am.
Yes I am 18 and yes I am your boss. At the end of the day which one is more important? It doesn’t matter what age you are, you can do anything you set your mind to. Whether that be running a restaurant at 18 or flying a plane at 80. Age is just a number, don’t let it stop you.
