What About My Age?
		By Jesse Smith

	I think that I'm about to get a wave of e-mails telling me that I've aired
too much in public. However, there is something on my mind that I wish to get out.
Since this is my personal web page, this seems the place to do so.

	At the time of writing, I am twenty-two years old. This has been brought to
my attention often of late, in case I might have forgotten. You see, recently I
approached a doctor about performing a vasectomy on me. The reasons for this are personal,
and probably not relevant to this discussion, so I'll leave them be. The doctor, while
a bit surprised, I think, at the request, agreed to perform the operation.

	"This isn't something many doctors do at your age," I think was all he said.

	Which is true enough. I'd talked to two doctors previously. Their feelings had been
"Under twenty-five?", "Not married?", "Less than three children?" Sorry, can't help you.
I discussed the operation with a few close friends before hand. Each of them had made an issue
of my age also. "But you're only twenty-two," had been the big argument. The other being,
"But then you won't be able to have children."

	Oddly enough, I was aware of both situations, thank you. Why would I choose to have
a vasectomy, if not to prevent having children? Why should my age be such a big factor?

	I encountered the same bias against my age group when I went looking for a mortgage
for a house last month. I talked with three banks, each of which made a point of telling me
that I was twenty-two and a mortgage is a long term situation. Oddly, I was aware of this.
The fact that I could tell them how long it would take, to the year, to pay off the loan
I was requesting, quote rival interest rates and use terms like "cash back mortgage" rattled
them a little. What? Just because I'm twenty-two, I haven't developed a brain yet?

	For goodness sake, I am old enough to vote, to help change the path of democracy
in this country. I am old enough to have children, buy pornography, purchase beer and smoke.
I have a college diploma in computer science, a full time job and am of age to drive a car. 
Yet, I'm looked upon as if I'm not old enough to take out loans or choose not to have children.
A number of my peers have kids, no one told them they couldn't because they were too young. Some
of my friends are married or soon to be married. No one is refusing them marriage licenses
because of their ages.

	I encountered a similar situation, again, when I was nineteen. Flesh out of college,
my parents (bless them both) gave me some money to get started in life. What did I do with
my new wealth? I invested it. That's right, I decided to put the money toward my future by
investing in mutual funds, bonds and GICs. About as low-risk, low-return as you can get.
I was told, at the time, that this branch of Clarica didn't have any other teenage male
clients. Only a few teenage female clients. Well, surprise, surprise. I guess there is a first
time for everything. At least I wasn't told to take my money elsewhere. Oh, as for how that
low-return, low-risk investment turned out? That was in June, 2001. Three months before
the infamous terrorist attacks that threw the economy into the toilet. I broke even.
So maybe, just maybe, I'm not as dumb as I look.

	I think the point I'm working toward here is that people tend to pre-judge me based
upon my age. Which, because I'm the one being judged, bothers me. I mean, if I was being turned
away from banks and doctors because I was female or black or Jewish, there would be hell to pay.
Discrimination, based on age, is no worse, I think, than discrimination from other stereotypes.

	As a bit of a foot note, I'd like to add a few things. One bank finally agreed to give
me a mortgage due to my "Perfectly spotless credit rating." Hear that? A twenty-two year old
with a perfectly spotless credit rating. I found a doctor that figured that, being a legal
adult, I was old enough to make my own choices. My thanks to both for putting down
my birth certificate long enough to listen to me.