Placienta, Calif. – 19 year-old Jeremy Yamaguchi has become the youngest elected official in Orange County. Yamaguchi is an El Dorato High School grad and a student at Cal State Fullerton. After reading a step-by-step guide book “How to Win Local Election” he started campaigning to be Placienta’s city councilman by going door-to-door, established a website, and sent out flyers. He will continue to study at CSU Fullerton and take on his duties as an elected official. Read more.
Jeremy Yamaguchi’s story makes me wonder how age limits our possibilities. We think we can’t achieve something or do something because we are too young or too old but these are merely socially construtcted concepts that we have been socialized to adhere to. Perhaps were are never too young or too old. We often overlook the issue of age when we think of societal barriers such as gender, race, nationality or religion – age is just as important and discriminatory as other factors that we discuss at Pacific Ties.
Yes we are college students, publishing a college magazine from a college campus. But all of us are just as capable and intelligent as any professional out there. We have life experiences, we learn, and we grow just like the rest of the working world. It’s time to take age seriously.
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