lalarukhfarooq@gmail.com
Age is such a funny thing in our society. Some people hide their own age. Some keep counting everyone else’s. And some completely forget their own age while making someone else’s age their personal national issue.
In my workplace, most people belong to Gen Z or the older generations. What I find amusing is that people who become strangely secretive about their own age, as if asking their age is an interrogation, can be remarkably fearless when commenting on someone else’s.
“You’re older than my mother!”
Okay… and?
Since when did someone’s age become a measure of their intelligence, education, skills, beauty or worth?
If someone’s mother married young, that is not my responsibility. Two women being different in age is neither a crime nor an achievement. It certainly does not tell us who is more intelligent, capable or accomplished.
And wrinkles?
Please.
Pointing out someone’s wrinkles does not make your own personality any smoother.
The real issue here is age-shaming.
Age-shaming is not simply calling someone “old”. It is the deeper belief that as a person grows older, their value somehow becomes smaller.
And here is something worth remembering:
Being younger is not a qualification.
You are younger than me? Congratulations. Your birth certificate has done its job.
But now, let’s talk about the things that actually matter.
Are you respectful?
Are you hardworking?
Are you sensible?
Are you willing to learn?
Can you celebrate someone else’s success without feeling personally threatened by it?
Because age is chronology, not character.
Your age tells me when you were born.
Your choices, discipline, knowledge, skills and behaviour tell me who you have become.
Making fun of someone’s success is easy.
Building your own skills is harder.
Backbiting is easy.
Building character is harder.
Scrolling through reels for hours is easy.
Sitting down to learn something new
takes effort.
Taking shortcuts is easy.
Consistency is difficult.
Counting other people’s flaws is easy.
Looking honestly at your own
reflection is rather inconvenient.
Perhaps this is one of our biggest social problems:
We are unpaid analysts of everyone else’s lives, yet barely interns in our own.
We have opinions about everyone.
Their age.
Their appearance.
Their wrinkles.
Their clothes.
Their accent.
Their success.
Yet somehow, when it comes to improving ourselves, the meeting is mysteriously postponed.
Making fun of someone’s age will not make you younger.
Mocking someone’s wrinkles will not make you more beautiful.
Diminishing someone’s achievements will not make yours greater.
And calling someone “old” certainly does not make you wise.
Real maturity is being able to respect someone who is older than you, more experienced than you, more educated than you, or simply better at something you are still learning.
That does not mean every older person is automatically right.
Respect is not obedience to age. It is evidence of character.
And perhaps we should collectively learn one simple lesson:
If you have enough time to comment on someone’s age, appearance, wrinkles, clothes, accent and achievements, you probably have enough time to reserve a small slot for your own growth too.
Because, in the end, people will not remember how cleverly you joked about someone’s age.
They will remember what kind of person you were.
Youth is a stage of life.
Maturity is a way of thinking.
Respect is a choice.
So if you are younger than me, by all means, enjoy the privilege.
But please do not confuse being younger with being better.
A birth date can make you young.
Your choices, your character and the way you treat people are what make you mature.
Lalarukh Farooq holds an
M.Phil. in Mass Communication, is a gold medalist, and brings valuable newsroom
experience along with expertise as a social media professional.
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