I loved being a teen. I had a great life then, young, in great shape, young girlfriends and no pain. But I was impulsive, immature and not to bright then. I have a feeling my 48 year old self wouldn’t life my 17 year old self very much. With that said if I could turn back time I would. But, only if I could go back with the knowledge I have now. Life would be so much different If I could be young again with knowing what I know now.
I can top it.
Our part time jobs as teenagers made us all the money we needed and sex was new and fun. When I was 18 you could drink beer and gas was cheap enough for a road trip. We all played sports so we were thin and full of energy.
The “happy” meter ran high most of the time and the “carefree” meter was pegged. I suppose having good parents who provided a stable home environment had a lot to do with it. Without that I wouldn’t have learned the social skills to make friends or the work ethic to get through school.
My parents could have been June and Ward Cleaver and that held true for my friend’s parents.
Looks like those of us who lacked social skills or were bullied wouldn’t do it again, while the rest of us mostly would. Even with the knowledge I have now, I don’t think I’d do any better with the girls. The only way I’d consider it would be if I could come back to the present whenever I wanted.
Fuck no, and I say this as someone who could biologically be your mother. I generally hated being a minor (so did a lot of my classmates), and my teen years were horrible. Anybody who spent the two last years of high school as non-head of a household with a bedridden and depressed mother, a depressed father (until he got a new job) and two boys around 10 and who’d go back to that needs a head check.
This is probably the truest answer.
By today’s standards my parents were not wealthy. We had food on the table and toys for Christmas. But even at a fairly young age I realized I had it good and it was because of my parents and the environment they created.
If everybody had parents like the ones I and my friends had the world would be a dramatically different place.
Hey, he had six girlfriends as a teenager. That averages to about one a year. Not too bad for a guy too shy to ask girls out.
I think people have this romanticized Superbad, American Pie, Fast Times at Ridgemont High Hollywood view of teenage life that it’s supposed to be drunken sex and drug orgies every weekend.
Not really. I miss the excellent health I had in my early teens, but that is about it. I liked my 20s though and would like to go back to those. Even though I was technically more neurotic and miserable in my 20s than I am now, things felt more authentic and I miss that.
I miss the innocence of my early teen years though. That and the health. But having to deal with a bunch of teenage monkeys trying to out alpha male each other I don’t miss.
No girlfriends, but a stable family life. I had to work more than I wanted (family farm), but my parents have been married 61 years. Our next anniversary will be 19.
Teenage/high school years sucked. No money, no car, no girlfriend, skin issues, no athleticism… I had a few nerdish friends that are still friends. (and maybe some girl nerd friends but I was too stupid to know it) Ages 10-13 and maybe 20-30 were great!
10-13 because there were still kids to play with and I could do things like urban exploration with no great consequences if I got caught. By age twenty I was pretty sure I was going to make it through engineering school and start making some real money.