Just a baby panda

Internets, today was a long day. After only 4-5 hours of sleep, I dragged myself to The Nonprofit's board meeting, which found approximately 20 of us cooped up in a room from 8:30am to 6:00pm, with only a 30 minute break before re-convening for a board dinner.

While I honestly enjoy my fellow board members, I am not very good at all-day marathon meetings. And it's especially hard to keep up with such a smart and distinguished group of people. I think I'm the youngest member of our board (Although one of the newer members may be slightly younger.), but I'm definitely at the lower end of the experience spectrum.

At one point, the two men seated on either side of me were bantering back and forth about who was older when one turned to ask how old I was. When I told them, they both groaned and declared that I'm a baby!

One of our newest board members mentioned that his daughter attended my alma mater and when I let him know of my affiliation, we realized that his daughter is a mere four years younger than me. He was kind of shocked that I was serving on the board, only 11 years after my undergrad experience.

I don't usually mind being mistaken for young, especially since I feel so old, but it's tough to maintain credibility when you don't have the experience or at least the air of experience about you. I know it really shouldn't matter, but I just feel like it does. I guess I should enjoy it before I'm one of the geezers.