I'm 20 years old, and I'm tired

I was told today that I'm not allowed to be tired because I'm 20 years old and "don't know what it means to be tired."  "Wait until you're my age."  "Wait until you have kids."  "You're too young to be tired."

I'm sorry. I didn't realize that age had anything to do with my ability/right to feel tired.  My bad.

But for real though... why is it that adults over the age of 30 feel that I--as a 20 year old--have no concept of what it means to be tired?  They don't know what's going on in my life, they don't know what physical signals my body is sending me, and they don't know how much sleep I've been getting lately.  What does the fact that I'm 10-20 years younger than them have to do with anything.

I've had chronic exhaustion since I was a sophomore/junior in high school.  The Mayo Clinic lists 8 major symptoms of "Chronic Fatigue" as follows:

Fatigue
Loss of memory or concentration
Sore throat
Enlarged lymph nodes in your neck or armpits
Unexplained muscle pain
Pain that moves from one joint to another without swelling or redness
Headache of a new type, pattern or severity
Unrefreshing sleep
Extreme exhaustion lasting more than 24 hours after physical or mental exercise

Now, just because someone has experienced one or more of these symptoms doesn't mean they have it, so nobody go hypochondriac on me.  But let's be honest, if I retort with "Oh yeah? Well I have chronic fatigue" people will laugh hysterically and call me a "snowflake millenial"  Right.  Thanks for the support.

It doesn't matter if I get 5 or 15 hours of sleep.  I will be tired after 2-3 hours of functioning at a normal level of activity and want to go back to bed.  It takes days for me to recover from high-intensity interaction.  I drink WAY too much caffeine just to keep me functioning at work.  There have been days where I walk around the store not really knowing what I'm doing because I'm in such a daze.  I've made serious mistakes with customers because I am unable to focus.  I can't sit down because if I do I will fall asleep.

But no, I'm too young to know what it's like to be tired.

I took 16 credits at MSU this spring and I worked 20-25 hours a week.  I studied for almost 10 hours for ONE of my 5 exams in May.  I walked over 5 miles total every day while I was in school because the fresh air and brisk pace kept my blood flowing--keeping me awake.  I nearly dozed off in class dozens of times because I just could not keep my eyes open.  But guess what, I still made the Dean's List and increased my productivity at work.

But you're right, I have NO clue whatsoever what being tired means.

Let me tell you all something.  Before you tell someone "You're too young to understand what it means to be _______." or "Wait until you're my age and then you'll really be _______.", think for one half a second about what you're about to say.  Maybe instead of assuming that they're just being dramatic or looking for attention, ask them if they're doing OK.  Maybe, just maybe, there's a reason someone is voicing a complaint about something.  Maybe something is actually wrong with them.  Maybe they are having a tough time.

No, I'm not going to parade around telling people "Oh yeah I have chronic fatigue, blah blah blah..." because I'm not an attention seeking whiner.  But today--probably because I'm tired--it bothered me that all of the older people at work just scoffed at me when I said I was exhausted (after an 8 hour shift).

Rant over.