Convince me I'm not Old!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I know I’m not old, but my 27th birthday looms, and I feel like so much is left undone in my life. No girlfriend, lot’s of ambitious career plans, a desire to travel more, a desire to be more fit. I still need braces on my teeth which will take me into year 28. I look in the mirror and notice that “Hey I’m older and not getting any younger!” It’s funny, I have to teach one more year in the place I don’t want to live for money reasons, but I wish time would speed up so I can really start to do adventurous things (Teach abroad, I try to meet women in my small town but it’s tough, maybe go back to school, learn another language). I have this crazy thought that I’m going to do all the things I should of done at age 23 at age 28 - 32. Weird eh?

(Deep breath, relax Quasi!)

2

I have underpants older than you.

Get off mah lawn!

3

You haven’t even seen the leading edge of old yet! It just gets better and better for the next decade for you young pups - quit yer bellyaching. I have kids (and yes, underpants too) that are older than you. I’ll tell what I tell them (both kids and underpants): Get off you ass and go do something! My kids generally ignore me but sometimes my undergarments do show a renewed zest for life.

At 53, the only regrets I have are the things I didn’t do. At 27 (old? HA!) you should be looking forward, taking chances and trying new things and not worrying about the past.

4

I’m doing lots! I’m just never satisfied. I could make a list.

Have a degree in music,
Teacher for three years
Have visited Europe, most of Canada
Can play guitar, trumpet, bass
Avid reader
Have run a full marathon
Scored a movie
Own a cool car

The list of have nots is what has irked me:

Only speak one language
No girl friend
Never taught abroad
I want my masters in music
Maybe a career change
Kids and family eventually?
I want to live in Eastern Canada

Most of those won’t get solved until I have a bit more money, the plan is to teach abroad in a year. The waiting game is tough though!

5

If you are old then I am Olde. So, no, sorry, I just can’t allow it. :wink:

I know just how you feel though. 25 was the tough one for me. Everyone I talked to just told me I was still a baby and dismissed it, but for weeks the phrase “quarter century” reverberated through my brain.

It didn’t help that by 25 my Mother had two children and my Dad was a Captain in the US Army. And they were buying their second house! ! !
All I can say is that you’re right about one thing, it IS time to start moving in the direction you want to go. Start now to build your life, rather than flowing along with it. Doing this thinking now will save you much regret later in life. Too many people don’t consider these questions until they are 40 or 50, when options are fewer and time shorter.

Mind you, better to do it than not. But far better to do it early than late!

The good news is that you really do have plenty of time. The bad news is that it passes much faster than you can expect.

I’d suggest making your “bucket list”. Mine is 100 things I want to do before I die. It’s a dynamic list (i.e. about ten years ago I changed “learn to fight bulls” to “do the bullfighter” LOL!) But overall it’s a great exercise for thinking through your wishes, dreams and aspirations.

There are still about 30 lines which are blank, waiting for entries like “get left hip replaced” I’d imagine . . .

6

I didn’t mean to give you a hard time. That is an impressive list … for a youngster :smiley:

You still have a nice long run ahead and your list is going to change a lot. I saw a book the other day, something like “1001 Places to See Before You Die”. Is that supposed to depress everybody? I say make a list, if you must, of things you want to do but don’t sweat the lines that don’t get checked off. There’s not going to be a test at the end.

7

First of all, the day you don’t have a list of “nots” is the day you’ve pretty much stopped living. I always want to have more goals in life, more things I haven’t done, more fun stuff to look forward to.

Keep being dissatisfied! Keep pushing for more!
As a side note: “Have visited most of Canada”? Really? I’ve lived for almost twice your age in the U.S. and traveled a lot, and wouldn’t say I’ve visited most of it. Passed through or flown over most of it? Perhaps. I’ve passed through most of the states, but I haven’t even seen “most” of the four states I’ve lived in. I would enjoy spending a week visiting each Canadian province/territory, but there’d still be a lot more to see after doing it.

8

You’re not old because you’re not old. I noticed a lot of my friends started getting obsessed with the whole “we’re so old!” thing at around 23 or 24. By 27 it’s time to get over it. You’re not getting any younger, and some avenues in your life have closed, but you’re nowhere close to old. It’s good to have long-term goals and you can’t expect everything in your life to be accomplished already. I know people who are dealing with that issue and it’s a good way to go nuts. As is, you’re not exactly an underachiever.

9

Whew! I’m convinced. Just a brief moment of panic this morning. Thanks guys. Going for a run today also helped clear my head.

Here is where I have traveled to:

Canada: Saskatoon, Regina, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and very soon Vancouver and Victoria.

Europe: Berlin, Prague, Rome, Vienna, Budapest,

USA: New Orleans, Los Angeles

I want to go to every continent! This includes Antarctica. I wonder if they have a public school system there.

Other to dos on the list: Design a website, Climb a mountain, direct a movie (Hah!), learn to swim. So much to do…

10

Allow me to lend some insight on yet another validation-seeking 20 Something’s quarter life crisis.

This is why you feel “old”. For most people like you, high school and college was probably the best time of your life (even if you didn’t realize it and thought it sucked). Expectations were clear, advancement was nearly automatic and you were constantly surrounded by peers your own age with similar interests. Even your early 20s probably were pretty cool as you may have had a lot of college friends around, you were excited about starting your career in the “real world” and you had yourself convinced you were more “college guy” than “adult guy”.

What generally happens after about 25 or so is that it is no longer “cool” for you to be hanging around with college age kids. You are closer to 30 than you are 20. And by now your dreams of superstardom or skyrocketing to success are meeting the harsh reality of how competetive and unforgiving the real world can be.

IOW, you aren’t “old”, you just aren’t a dumb college-age kid anymore. You can’t even really pretend to be a college-age kid anymore.

Eventually what will happen (if you aren’t carefull) is you may stop looking towards the future and where you want to go and just sort of settle into your life and that will become your life. Or even worse, you will spend your time reminiscing about shit you did when you were 21.

I recommend just keep pursuing your interests and career goals and living your life.
Obligatory link to Baz Luhrmann song.

11

You know that smarmy aphorism “you’re as young as you feel!” that we old folks use for solace?

Well, it works the other way around too - you’re as old as you feel. I’ve had peers who started bemoaning how old they were when they hit 25. At the same age, I’d look at them and think “what the hell are you talking about? I’m 25 (or 28, or 33…) and I don’t feel old!”

Now all of us are 50 or so, and the difference between me and those people is that they spent decades moping about their age, whereas I just had a great time and didn’t worry about it.

It’s your choice.

12

So much is left undone because so much of your life is still undone. You have plenty of time to do those things. Just keep doing.

13

At 27, I was a cop. I went back to college to finish my degree and had a complete career change when I did (went into computers). I was The Old Man - my main professor and adviser was 3 years older than me. :eek:

Og in hebbun, how those young college girls swarmed all over me! If I had been single, I could have scored so much nookie that the skin on my johnson would have gotten callused. They were all horny and looking for a daddy figure. And oh, I wanted to. There were some major babes in my classes.

Except…I was married. And I took the promise seriously about forsaking all others. And I realized that, even if I didn’t take it seriously, these kids would be fun to bang, but what the heck would I talk to them about afterwards? (yeah, a 7 year age gap is that much at that age). And I realized that most of them did not have the same standards of honor and integrity that I did: they were perfectly willing to hop in bed with me knowing I was married.

Made me sad for them. Made me happy to be old enough to understand responsibility and integrity.

14

You think that you are old now, wait until you turn 30.
Then a week later you will be fine and start worrying about 40.

15

Nemo’s Law of Aging: No matter how old you feel at your current age, in ten years you’ll be wishing you were that young again.

16

I’m 36 and I still feel like I did when I was 26, or even 20. Hell, I just got my masters a few years ago as a full time student at a party school.

I feel so bad for those people who get married and have kids right out of high school. They’ve missed out on so much that you and I have experienced.

Go where you want to go and do what you want to do. It’s a luxury that most people don’t have/can’t have. Things will happen, as time passes. I now am married to the perfect woman, have awesome jobs, own my perfect house, and have a cool dog. All without trying, and at 36 years old my life is way better than all my friends from high school. Best part is, I feel way younger than everybody my age.

17

I’m going to be 82 next month, so about all I can say is “Ha ha ha ha!”

Hang in there kid, I gurantee it will get a lot worse. :smiley:

18

I felt really old at 28 because most of my “classmates” who started the same year had promotions before me. But at 29 I became a manager and my life changed. Suddenly people I didn’t know wanted my opinion and favors. And it went up and up, eventually to VP at a smaller company. Then I stopped caring about the ladder and went independent and was happier.

19

Look at it this way. You’re not old enough that you talk to your underpants.

20

I’m 28 and I feel a lot like the OP. He seems to be from Canada and has visited most of it and two states. Likewise, I’ve visited most of my country - 34 states - and 2 Canadian provinces, as well as Germany and France. Just a few weeks ago, I visited the hill country in central Texas and climbed Enchanted Rock and hiked through Pedernales Falls, though I’ve never climbed a real mountain. (I couldn’t right now anyway. My knee isn’t in very good shape.)

I’ve done a lot of travelling, but I’ve never lived anywhere far away from my home town which is something I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid. When I went on vacations with my grandparents as a kid, there were several places we went that I said I would live there some day. Grandma still occasionally mentions how I said I was going to live in Calgary. And I’ve really been looking into doing that for the past few years, but the time is never right. My car needs a new engine and the economy is bad and so on. I wait for things to get better, but they only get worse.

And career-wise, I’m way off track. As a kid, I dreamed of being a scientist. At different ages, it was a different type of scientist: astronomer, entomologist, physicist… In high school, I had decided that I was done with the hell known as school, but I ended up going and getting an Associate’s degree anyway when I found out what real work was like. Loved college. However, it did me no good. I’m at a completely unrelated job that doesn’t match me very well at all. It could lead to being a machinist which might be interesting, but at this rate, I’d be lucky. It sucks not being able to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Also, while I’m not completely monolingual, I haven’t learned as much French or Japanese as I would like. Nor German nor Russian…

Plus most of my friends have gotten married and have kids. I hardly have any friends anymore really. There’s no one who’ll say, “Hey let’s go to Salt Lake City,” and a day or two later, we’re driving to Utah. They’ve all lost their sense of adventure. I can’t even get them to go bowling anymore.

So I don’t know. I don’t really feel old, but I do feel like opportunities have passed. I feel like I’m getting close to old. In a few years, I better be a lot closer to what I want to do or I might as well give up.