"For as long as I can remember, strangers have gone to great lengths to inform me of their presumption that I am still a child. While driving, I have had women on street corners shout at me—they think I’m too young to be behind the wheel of a car. And airline ticket agents always gape at my ability to fly solo, unaccompanied by an adult. In general, I am still thought to be half my age. What astonishes me about these encounters is not people’s erroneous assumptions, but rather their need to admit them to me."
