During my move across half the country and then my first few days here in TempCollege Village, I've had the following conversation no less than fifty times (and yes, I fully acknowledge that I'm prone to exaggeration, but that is an underestimation, promise):
Random person: So are you here for school?
Me: Um, no. I moved here for work. A job at TempCollege.
Random person: Oh yeah? What are you doing?
Me: Teaching. I'm a one-year faculty hire.
Random person: But-- but you're too young to teach!
A few comments about the above broken record.
First, I'm extremely uncomfortable with identifying my overeducation to nonacademics. I'm the product of an academic family from a very academic town, so I was brought up surrounded by white collar types. So I'm very hesitant to outright tell people I am faculty (and therefore Dr. Unreaction). If I would just tell them from the start, maybe I could nip such conversation in the bud?
Second, I've recently been actively TRYING to dress older (I haven't worn one t-shirt outside of my house, promise!) yet even today I was given the student tour of the gym facilities (including a semi-sketchy run-through of some underground tunnels for 20 minutes until I finally interrupted the poor kid and said "yeah, I think you should show me the location of the faculty locker room instead since that's what I'll be using." ...yes, I don't know why there are separate student/faculty locker rooms either, but I like it!)
Yes, I realize that my youthful appearance will serve me well in 20 years or so, but for now, I'm just ready for some 18 year olds to get back on campus so I can at least (by comparison) appear older!
