How many people here miss being a Teenager?

In My Humble Opinion
61

+1 except for the part in brackets, as I surpassed perfection years ago. I wouldn’t want to be a teenager again, but I wouldn’t mind feeling like one. My 20s and 30s were infinitely preferable.

In fact, I generally consider 30 to be the perfect age. You’re (probably) not falling apart yet physically, you’ve (hopefully) got your immature years behind you. It’s old enough for you finally to be settled into a career if you choose but still young enough to drop it and go off to explore whole new avenues if you decide to do that.

62

nope. no way, no how. those years were bad enough where I wouldn’t mind going around to all the people who said high school would be the best time of my life and punch all of them in the balls.

63

I miss my teens already, and I’m not even 30 yet.

64

No. I wasn’t totally miserable as a teenager. But I wouldn’t trade what I have now, in my late 30s, for anything I had back then.

65

No, unless I somehow could recognize that I was getting depressed (or have responsible adults notice!), and get some help before dysthymia became my new normal. Everything would have been different and better, and I know that because I had peers for whom it was all of those things and more.

I do miss listening to the modern-rock station, and sometimes checking out the music channels on TV, and catching tons of music that was either new, or just new to me. I remember how excited the DJs could get about veteran musicians putting out something new. It was a vast world that shattered my preconceived notions of what music was, and it has made a huge impact on my life.

I was born in 1982, as a point of reference. I wonder if some of these differences in perception are generational, because I think my grandparents’ generation (and the early members of the next generation) really did think, and say, that high school is the greatest time of your life. Now, everyone seems to hate it. I just thought it was really interesting, and still do, but I was so damn unhappy, and still was for years after that. With that said, there are lots more factors than just generational shifts.

66

Teen years? No way. I wasn’t particularly miserable, but there’s absolutely no way I would want to be dependant on my parents again. Then, I left home relatively early and was dirt poor. Nope again.

Make that mid-20s for me. Not that I was particularly happy at that time (I wasn’t) but I was young, with a stable job, and could do things differently.

Being “carefree” is nice, but the cost of having no autonomy is too high a price to pay.

67

Agreed. I wouldn’t want to relive my teenage life or go back and live in the time when I was a teenager. But I’d be happy to get back the body I had when I was eighteen.

68

+1

69

Hell no!

My teenaged years were incredibly pain filled and stressful.

I knew at sixteen, if I lived to be a hundred, I would never be as old again, as the year I was sixteen.

Events of those time shaped, very much, who I am today. So, painful as it was, I would not change anything.

But go back? Never. Not ever. No thank you!

70

My teenage years sucked big time. But on the “would you go back?” question, of course it depends on what we mean by that:

If we’re saying go back to 1992 (when I was 13), without any memories of the years that followed, what would be the point of that? For all I know, God plays the universe’s timeline like a scratch DJ, and I’ve gone back to my teenage years dozens of times already.

Just about any other scenario I’d accept, because most of them feature at least one of: life extension / youthful body / knowledge of the future.

But, best time of my life so far? Probably about age 32. I had a great job, it was the peak of my physical fitness, and I was (finally) making the transition from someone frustrated with life, to knowing how to make myself and others happy.

71

I was very shy, socially awkward, somewhat insecure, and just not all that happy as a teen. It wasn’t a horrible time, but I wouldn’t want to live it again. My 30s were pretty good, and I’d like to go back with some of my hard-earned wisdom - it would make these retirement years more comfortable financially. But middle school and high school were not magical times for me - they were just a necessary part of the path to becoming a better me. In fact, the very best thing I did as a teen was enlist in the Navy, and it took till I was 19 to do that. :smiley:

72

Yes I miss being a teenager. I had a lot of fun because even though I was doing a lot of stupid things I was also too young too know how stupid I was, or to care.

The downside is that if I go back to that identical state I’ll just have to go through the same old life again. If I could be a teenager again and know what I know now then life would be incredible, but if the equation is changed I’m more likely to end up younger and even stupider, and then I might end up too stupid to survive.

73

When I was a teenager, I was overweight, which made me shy. By 17, things had righted themselves, and well, there just is no substitute for a 17 year old girl, is there?

I would go back only to tell myself this: “Do not pick up smoking to look cool and fit in. You’re going to get sick from it, Debra. Medication and oxygen every day kind of sick. Is that worth it?”

Right now is the best time of my life, because I woke up today.

74

I wouldn’t relive anything before I moved to New York at 29. Suddenly I wasn’t invisible to women anymore. Maybe it would have been different if I had grown up somewhere else, but my teens and most of my twenties were something to be endured. I’m also glad I never believed the “best years of your life” crap. Probably the best part will be when my wife and I see our sons become happy adults.

75

I’m old enough to be your father, and no, I thought high school was crap. But I admit a lot of it has to do with where you are. I was in West Texas, stuck among a bunch of worthless rednecks – admittedly, many of them probably to this day consider high school to be the high point of their miserable little lives. (Although they weren’t all worthless rednecks. One classmate who was a nice guy has made a fair career in show business and has bagged small parts in movies and TV shows, usually ones located in Texas. For instance, he has a couple of lines in No Country for Old Men.)

76

My teenage years were a whirlwind of new experiences. Some of those memories I love to recall, while others I make a point not to think about. I was in my teens in the mid 70s. When I was 12 we moved to Toronto from Bogotá. Everything was new - new language, new friends, the climate, new baby brother. Of course the start of them were difficult in the sense that my world changed overnight, but I had been used to that already. I grew up in six different countries. As for many people, my teens were a time of experimentation. I can’t say that it was all bad. In fact, much of it was down right wonderful. Would I go back to those years if I could? Sure, but only to certain and specific moments. My first real kiss. That third acid trip. That class with that one amazing teacher. That steep ass hill where we would sled on the first good snow and hope and pray not to hit the tree at the bottom. My best friend - a guy, we were never romantically involved and we loved each other dearly. That one family vacation where everything was perfect. You get the picture. I could go on, but my point is don’t we all have good and bad memories of each decade of our lives? I’ll be 51 soon, and right at this very moment, I feel happy most of the time. I’m not sure I can say the same for my teenage years, but there were definitely many good times.

77

I discovered these boards after searching the exact subject of “miss being a teenager”. It’s weird really, my teenage years were horrible in many ways. I always had a lot of girls talking to me and flirting with me, but I was so shy that I never made a move. That and my self esteem was so low that I never knew flirting when I saw it. I met my wife at 19 and talking about the whole thing now she informs me that she flirted with me for months before she finally asked me out. Yeah, that’s right I never asked her out. I never asked ANY girl out. I had about 6 girlfriends as a teenager and they all asked me out because I was always too shy to make a move. Hell, two times that stick out in my mind I now hit myself over whenever I think of them now. First story I was at a local festival, I had on my superman t-shirt and I guess chicks liked it because it was tight over my muscles. This hot chick my age came up to me and smiled, then said “Hey Superman, can I be Lois Lane?”. I laughed and kept walking. Second story I was bringing my little nephew trick or treating, this hot girl my age answered the door at one of the houses we visited. She gave my nephew a piece of candy and then looked up at me and smiled. “I’ll give you a special treat of you want” she said. You know what I said to this hot blonde chick standing before me? “I’ll take a peanut butter cup please.” Yeah, I said that.

I had the build and the height, 6’3" and very muscular that the coach of both the basketball team and the football team who were both good friends with my dad came to him and begged him to get me to play for them. But I didn’t want to have all that attention on me and definitely didn’t want to go to school to practice when I could be at home sitting in my room playing video games.

I never got my license at sixteen, my parents didn’t stop me or anything. I just never had the desire to try. I’m 32 years old now and I STILL don’t have a drivers license.

When I was in elementary school I was an overweight kid and was bullied constantly. But by the time I hit middle school I had gotten tall and slimmed down. Nobody ever bullied me again, yet I still had the same mindset that I had in elementary school. Even when I changed physically, I was always that chubby kid on the inside.

So basically, I wasted my teenage years. Now whenever I watch my favorite shows from my childhood like Boy Meets World and The Wonder Years I end up feeling really bummed. I know I could stop watching shows like that, but I like the shows for one and for two it wouldn’t eliminate the problem. The problem is that I feel like I wasted a period of my life that was supposed to be exciting, fun and magical. I know that I need to be happy and enjoy this period in my life, seeing as I am not an old man yet, can still move around well and do not have to deal with crap like wrinkles and failing body parts yet. But I have so much trouble moving on and enjoying my life now. It’s funny too, I read so many posts on here where people were saying that they enjoyed their 30’s most of all. And here I am in my 30’s wasting time because I am spending my time being sad about wasting my teenage years. At this rate, will I end up in my 50’s feeling bad that I wasted my 30’s?

I wish I could go back and relive my teenage years with the knowledge I have now. Now I have high self esteem, I am not shy and I am pretty charismatic. I could have done so well as a teenager with those characteristics. But I know that you can’t go back. I’d like to be able to just move on and enjoy the life I’ve got. Because all around, I do have a good life right now.

78

16: I lived with my father who I got along with really well. I had issues with school that eventually got much worse, but were okay at that point. I had a cool circle of friends. I had a cool and very pretty girlfriend and we screwed a lot; seriously we should have been in the sex olympics or something – I remember days when we were alone and would boink all day (yes, with breaks, but we’d go at it several times at least).

Yeah, I miss that.

I don’t miss 17. Shit fell apart.

79

Maybe you’d have more friends if you stopped bullying and beating people.:smiley:

My teenage years were fine, but I would hardly want to go back to them.

80

Gosh, that is horrible. In fact, it may be the saddest thing I ever heard.