I'm a big girl now...

I am about to turn 23... and that's fine. At least it's fine until people point it out and pat me on the head like a child. Or conversely say, "Oh.... my.... god!!! Are you in FIRST year?".
What is age anyway? The number of years we have physically been on this earth.
Age is used for expectations ("Act your age"), excuses ("Of course he's disorganised, he's only 18") and discrimination ("As if you'd date a younger man!").`(Don't worry Tommy, I love you enough.... promise).
I know many teenagers with more 'life experience' than many 40 year olds, 15 year olds counting down the days until they turn 18 and can vote and 50 year olds who have never voted in their life and 'young' people with their heads more firmly on their shoulders than anyone I've met.
Now I accept that people form different generations (for example) may not have anything to talk about, but there are multiple people in their 20s, who are Australian, who live around the corner, go to UWA and are girls (for example) that I could not think of a single word to say to!

(In no way do I mean to offend the person whose comment triggered this 'outburst'; I'm sure it was meant to be endearing. This is just something that gets on my nerves.)

On a completely different topic...
I used to play Boggle with my boyfriend's sister after every Friday night (Shabbat) dinner. When Adam and I split up and his family turned aginst me, my boggle playing died. I played it the other day and an now obsessed again. Unfortunately I don't know anyone else as enthusiastic about boggle as Em.