How Old Am I???

I have recently discovered that I do not look my age. I started noticing it last summer when I was visiting Greece for two weeks in July. We would be in a conversation with someone (although I use the word conversation loosely because many didn't speak English) and they would ask how old I was. I would answer 18, or 19 since I had my birthday while I was there, and the person would look shocked and somehow communicate that they thought I was 15 or 16. I didn't think too much of it because many of these conversations were with gypsies and in their culture, as a 19 year-old I should already be married and have a toddler running around.

Ever since I left College Station about 5 weeks ago, I've heard a lot of people guess (in one way or another) that I am younger than I am. When I was in Dallas a couple days before I flew out, I had 3 people in one day ask me if I was in high school. Actually, I'm a junior in college thank you very much! Now that I'm in Greece I've made a game out of having people guess my age. Whenever we are having a conversation with someone I have never met before, I usually ask them to try to guess my age. I've gotten anywhere from 14 to 18. And when someone guesses 18, I want to kiss them.

My mom constantly reminds me that looking young in a good thing. After all, she has had the same "problem" her entire life. Actually, on my parents' honeymoon someone asked my dad if she was his daughter -- now that's bad! I know that when I'm older I will be ecstatic if people think I'm 5 years younger than my age but as a 19-year-0ld (that will be 20 next month), someone thinking that I'm 14 is not the greatest compliment I've ever received.

What boggles my mind is that during the other 9 months of the year I NEVER get that. I'm thinking that a lot of it has to do with the fact that I live in College Station where literally half the population of the city is in college, so if someone if going to guess my age, their best guess would be that I'm in college. But that's just a theory.

Edit: I had orientation for my study abroad program this weekend. In order to warn the guys to be careful who they hit on, one of the presenters commented that Greek women look much older than they really are. So maybe I really do look like I'm 20, but Greek women look like they are 20 when they are 14. That's the story I'm sticking with...