Being a Baby Boomer is great! I can enjoy all the freedom that not having little children around all the time affords. I can come and go as I please. I can understand certain things because of my maturity but am still young enough to wonder at small things like flowers and insects.

But being of an age has it’s issues as well. I am still working. I don’t even foresee retirement anywhere in the near future. There are certain things that someone who is 68 years of age has to deal with . . . such as that silent discrimination that comes when someone talks to you on the phone about a job related issue and then meets you in person and sees the white hair. Their whole demeanor changes.

Trying to convince someone with a prejudice against older people (and believe me, they don’t even know they have this prejudice) that you can do the work as well as or better than a younger person, is downright impossible at times.

So how do you get over this problem? Well, one way is to start thinking of all things you have to offer. Write the items down on paper. There is a big difference between writing and typing. I used to think it was a magic that happened when you wrote with paper and pen/pencil. But apparently it is more of a physiological thing. The energy that is created with the act of writing is documented to be true and your energy changes for the better.

So I write down all the positive things I have to offer. As a Graphic Designer I have years of experience in preparing artwork to go on press. This is something many new designers coming out of schools today have no idea how to do. They don’t understand (or even know about) the printing process. So they send things off to printers and the printer ends up charging their client extra money to redo the artwork so it can actually be printed.

So when writing down things like “understanding the printing process” I can actually expand on that and go into details such as what paper choices can do to a job or what particular kind of process is best for this specific job. Etc.

Being a professional with white hair means you have the knowledge and experience that cannot be learned overnight. And don’t forget that!!