November 11, 2008

Dynamism, idealism, passion, energy, new ideas and liberal thoughts are said to be some of the things the youth bring to the table wherever they are. These are said to be some of the pros of being young but some say there are also cons that come with a tender age. The need for seasoning, inexperience, uncontrolled aggressiveness and being impulsive are some of the negatives. Well, I think regardless of age, gender, race and other factors, there will always be the pluses and the minuses.

Even in matters of the heart, I always believe that it's not the biological age that matters but the maturity of the individual. There are some who are only in their teens but are mature for their age while there are some who are already in their 30's but who might not act their age. My ex girlfriends were all younger than me. The closest to my age was 2 years younger than me and the farthest was 9 years younger than me.

On continuous education, I was the youngest in our batch who started with a Master's Degree in Public Management major in Local Government Administration at age 23 and earned it at age 26. At present, I am the youngest Doctoral Student at age 27 when I started and hopefully earn my Doctor of Management with concentration in Public Management at age 29. Even in my teaching stint, I was one of the youngest Post Graduate professors at age 25.

In my political career, I am currently the youngest City Councilor of Iloilo City who was elected at age 27. Speaking of politics, when I was reading about the US presidential elections, something trivial about the biological age and the real age of US President-Elect Obama came up. He is 47 years old right now but his real age is said to be at 49. Real age is computed based on diet, stress, excercise, and ailments, among other factors. I was curious about such that i tried it out and my real age is said to be 23 years old according to www.realage.com.

Times have changed. Age may be a factor in alot of things we do in life but it's just one of the many things to be considered.

I believe in merit and performance based evaluation rather than just purely and mainly on seniority. I don't think it's about who came first or who served the longest but rather it's about who served well and excellently.