The other day, one of my students (an 8th grade girl) was like, "Are you married??" and I said, "no" of course. She said, "why not???" and I replied, "Ummm because I'm ONLY 23...." I think it kinda embarrassed her because they class kinda giggled when I said that. And then I had to restrain myself from lecturing a class of 8th graders about how contrary to popular belief around here, you don't have to be married with childern by age 20. Seriously. Had to bite my tongue.

They all think I'm *really* old. Everytime they ask and find out how old I am they say something to the effect of "Wow, you don't look....um....that far up in age. You don't look any older than 19..." WHAT?! Even an 18 year old said that one day.

I'm just gonna start responding with, "Dude, 23 is much cooler than 16. Believe me."