I lucked into an IT career. My other possible path was journalism, and if I’d done that I would’ve been totally screwed now.

It’s also lucky that I look much younger than I am, as IT has a lot of age discrimination. Judging by family history when I am 50, I’ll still look about 35-38 or so. Right now, people usually guess my age as about 26-28 though I am actually 37.

A few weeks ago, a woman who I talk with occasionally at work while discussing our jobs said to me, “It’s pretty cool someone so young as you is up so high up on the org chart.”

And I said, “How old you think I am exactly?”

She said, “Maybe 26?”

Heh.

It was a curse when I was younger, as people thought my sister (four years my junior) was older than me. And I was carded at R-rated movies until my late 20s and accused of having a fake ID while buying alcohol one time (I was 25).

But now I quite like it. There is also evidence that people who retain a youthful appearance live longer, so there’s that.