I'm having age issues

Why is it that everytime I tell someone I just met that I'm a first-year Ph.D. student, they immediately say, "Oh, are you a freshman?" The last time it happened, I decided to pretend they actually heard me. So I said, "No, they don't call first year graduate students freshmen." I'm not even straight out of college either. I already have a master's degree in neuropsychology and I took two years off after that to do research before I went back to school again to begin my first year in a new program. I'm 26 people!!! Stop confusing me for an 18 year old!!! Last weekend, a nice old man asked me about my Thanksgiving. When I told him I was glad to have spent time with my little sister, he asked me how old my little sister was. I told him she was 18 and a look of shock passed across his face, at which point he asked me how old I was...thinking I didn't look a day older than 18 myself, so how could my little sister be 18! To which I responded, "Yeah, it's okay, I get asked how old I am all the time. I'm actually 26. People usually think I'm 6 to 8 years younger than I really am."

My students even flat out ask me how old I am. Maybe I'll start wearing a sign on my forehead that says, "Don't bother to ask...I'm 26 years old." It really undermines my authority to look so young. I think I'm a victim of ageism.

Anyways, I decided to not teach anymore. This will be my last semester teaching and I'm hugely relieved. I really don't like teaching (as evidencd by my last two entries). However, I think I managed to keep teaching without conveying that sentiment to my students. I actually had one of my students give me the ultimate compliment that a teacher could receive. She wanted to know if I was teaching again next semester because she wanted to take another class with me. I actually considered teaching again for a couple of days before I remembered my distaste for teaching. Maybe I will, but I don't think so. My advisor put a grant in for funding next fall. I'm hoping it gets funded because I'd be given a research assistanceship. Although, I'd have to drive to inner city Denver to test people in their homes. Scary!!

Two weeks and the semester is over. I'm absolutely amazed and absolutely swamped with work. I'm writing a paper on reading comprehension theories and instructional strategies (more accurately, I'm thinking about starting the paper) and I have a teaching philosophy to write (I do actually look forward to that, strangely enough) as well as a final project for another class, let alone taking 8 hours to write the final for the class I'm teaching (including a study guide and one last set of lecture notes). Whew!! Way to much. Any case, I'd better stop procrastinating and write up the meeting minutes and agenda for the Ed Psych society meeting tomorrow or I won't get any sleep tonight.