"They won't listen" - really? I've had lots of older mentors in my life, and they treated me like their equal. This is a distinct contrast to older people who

"They won't listen" - really? I've had lots of older mentors in my life, and they treated me like their equal. This is a distinct contrast to older people who just take the opportunity to lecture and judge. "You won't understand until you're older" is a sterling example of how to ensure no young person will listen to you -- it's inherently disrespectful, and shows you are concerned less with communicating than affirming your own special-ness. Maybe it's you. (When I was in middle school, I befriended my librarian, taught her HTML, which led to me teaching whole classes of librarians and meeting the library sciences executive for the entire county. She became a friend. Once she told me in typical frankness, "I wish I hadn't given so much to this job. A job will never love you back." Do you think I ignored her, figuring that I knew better? She never once told me "you can't understand until you're older." Because she was a true mentor, and that's a cop-out.)