OK, we’d all like to see a youth drug invented. Who wouldn’t like to regain the health, vigor and libido of a twenty-year-old? But seriously, all you fellow geezers, would you like all the other baggage that goes with it? Weren’t we all a lot dumber, a lot more frightened, a lot more insecure?
Here’s my good reason not to go back: as a 44-year old, I’m a lot calmer, more balanced, and more secure about myself. It’s interesting to read the posts here of the younger Dopers, as they encounter love trouble, breakups, binge drinking, etc., and remember how I felt doing the same things back then. I wouldn’t want to go through that again. I would have to re-experience those TREMENDOUS emotional ups and downs, and they sucked.
The older I get, the more I realize I don’t know. That fact would have bothered me when I was in my twenties and younger. I rarely get bothered at all any more. It’s taken me nearly 37 years to get to this point.
I know there’s more surprises for me down the road, but I feel well equipped for the journey.
All right, this may be hard to explain, but I’ll try.
When I was younger, when things that I foolishly thought were TRAGIC happened…when they were over, I could say, “PHEW! I’ve learned that lesson, now I never have to feel like that again.”
As I get older, I can say that much sooner every time…to the point where now something crappy can be in progress, and I can say, “All right, this sucks. But eventually it WILL be over, and then I’ll never have to feel like this again.”
It’s a strange sort of comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.
Oh yeah, and I’m 30; my mom’s 54 and she tells me it just keeps getting better.
I turn 32 tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day. :eek:
In honor of my birthday, you can all have Thursday off. (don’t say anything about ‘turkeys’)
To borrow a phrase from Doc Holliday in “Tombstone” -
[Val Kilmer 'f*** you' drawl] ***I'm in my prime*.** [/Val Kilmer 'f*** you' drawl]
I have a great family that I can give back to more now. I feel that the friendships that I have now aren’t as superficial as they were in the past, and now, hopefully, I can make the distinction when necessary.
Probably the least important thing, I’ve got lots of stuff – a Harley, a boat, a new Jeep, etc…
I can do what I want on whim, with a hell of a lot more freedom and financial resources than I had at 16 or 21.
When I was younger, I do wish that I had appreciated the wisdom of those around me who were older, and I wish that I had been given and taken more advice, instead of thinking that ‘hey, I’ve been on this planet for 16 years - I know what the hell I’m doing!’
Although I have always felt this, I do continue to have a greater appreciation for how precious and fleeting our lives are. Life can be a bitch at times, but overall it’s great, and I’m thankful that I’m here.
The pressures of life are easier to put into perspective, or at least easier to deal with or ignore.
You can’t hang out anywhere for 32 years and not learn at least something.
Youth is given way too much credit on tv, in magazines, etc.
I can’t remember who said this, but I can’t agree with them more:
“Youth is wasted on the young”
(and I do agree with the points of the previous posts)
The health and vigor I’d take in a heartbeat, but my youthful libido made me do too many stupid, embarrasing, and dangerous things way back when. I much prefer the upscale, but slower model I have now.
Seriously, at 53, I don’t feel any particular need to prove anything to anybody anymore.
I like that feeling.
Also, I no longer feel compelled to fight fair.
Mess with me and I’ll whack you with my cane.
(Not you of course, pugluvr, that was a generic ‘you’)
The OP pretty much says it: perspective. Knowing what is truly important. Getting over the striving for success and all the stress that goes along with it because success is now defined differently for me than it was 30 years go.
My 58th birthday is on Saturday. I don’t have the stamina of years past, but I learn to pace myself. I wouldn’t mind going back to my 40’s, but I wouldn’t be a kid again for anything.
OldBroad - there you are! I invoked your name in Carl Berry’s return thread in MPSIMS a few minutes ago.
What I like best about aging (I’m 56 in March) is pretty much what Hamadryad already said. Things still aren’t as calm and settled as I’d like them to be, but like her, I’ve learned that bad times will pass and I’ll survive.
And it seems like people listen to me sometimes. Not in the Dear Abby kind of way, but like they’re interested in how I’ve handled some experiences. Losing a husband, kids growing up and leaving home, parents aging and in bad health, relocating, changing jobs at a mature age, stuff like that.
You didn’t ask this, but the only negative I can think of is that I didn’t take better care of my health. I’d love to have the chance to refuse that first cigarette. (Quitting is hard.)
Yekh, it’s a pretty old crowd here. Or, as we are forced to say now, time chalanged.
Pug, is your pill reversible? Or, once I took it, I’m 5 yo again and have to go through all this shit all over once more?
Like other people said: You have more of a perspective on life and realize “you’ll get by; you always have before” (my motto, from Evita, thank you Tim Rice). I think the bad things don’t seem so agonizing, and coversely, you appreciate the good things more. I use to get extremely frustrated when things went wrong; I know now that if I can do something about it, then do it; if I can’t, then it’s out of my control. I figure things either will or won’t happen, and work with what you got.
Very nicely put, thank you. You couldn’t pay me enough to be 16 again. (Just hit 37 eight days ago.) Small disturbances were to me, then, earth-shattering events. Now, although more serious things have happened to me recently I am better able to see them through, having a different perspective and having learned the limits of my abilities. At 16, limits were like a cage but now they’re something I can work with and around. I gained more tools with age I guess.
At 47, I don’t take things as seriously as I did when I was younger. I also cut everyone a lot more slack, giving the benefit of the doubt more often.
I’m more patient in lines and in traffic, which helps, since I live in Atlanta.
I’m also quicker to notice the smaller things and enjoy them more. I STILL step in puddles, stop to see the ‘rainbow’ in oil slicks, and play baseball with my sons, so the childlike remains while the childish fades… a VERY nice thing.
dwyr: All of it was coherent. I understand you perfectly, and agree.
Okay, I just finished watching a documentary about the Beatles, and am moved to say this, although it is not precisely in keeping with the original subject of my own thread:
::Removing PC hat::
THE MUSICIANS OF MY GENERATION KICK THE BUTT OF THE MUSICIANS OF THIS GENERATION!
It’s not that the music back then that was so much better than the music of today (which it was), but the fact that in the last year, I have bought and listened to current CDs of Paul McCartney (“Run, Devil, Run”), Santana, and Sting (“Brand New Day”), and I was just blown away. These artists are AWESOME. Although their youthful angst may be tempered, their creativity and excellence are unabated. They are superior. Sorry, X-generation Dopers, this is my opinion and I’m sticking by it. Gosh, did I just say that? (Preparing to be flamed by the fetuses.)
::Replacing PC hat::
Now I’m in for it.
Yes, one of the advantages of being of our generation is that we were young at the time of an explosion of absolutely brilliant music. We’ll always have that and we’ll always share that.
