# I'm 19 and the thought of turning 20 scares me. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 28, 2018, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637 "2018-01-28T05:04:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/21 "2018-01-28T09:40:57Z")
Don’t make any babies! Save that for your 30s. ---
**Author:** ![ASGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@ASGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/22 "2018-01-28T13:16:48Z")
You can’t be 20 on Sugar Island. – Neal Young ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/23 "2018-01-28T13:24:29Z")
> [@BloodStalk](#): > > . . .I won’t be able to have certain privileges of being associated with youth. What exactly are the advantages to being 19 years old that you won’t have when you are 20? Could you please enumerate them for us? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/24 "2018-01-28T13:51:37Z")
Leaving the teenage years behind is a very happy thing. Good riddance to them. Soon you will see what I mean. I’m 69, and thought of turning 70 scares the crap outta me. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/25 "2018-01-28T13:53:29Z")
My eldest brother has a minor crisis with each new age milestone starting at 21. His next one will be 80 and he is already warming up for it at 76. I never understood this. I just don’t think about it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/26 "2018-01-28T14:25:38Z")
> [@ASGuy](#): > > You can’t be 20 on Sugar Island. > > – Neal Young Mountain. Many of us would kill to be 20. Well, metaphorically speaking, of course. And if we get to know what we know now, too. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/27 "2018-01-28T14:25:55Z")
I’ll let you into a secret. I’m nearly 70, and there are bits of me that are still in some way 18 (sadly, not the bits that I’d wish). Your youth is not over. You will be moving into new phases of life, that’s all. Why rush to anticipate problems that may or may not happen? Cross those bridges when you come to them: enjoy where you are now. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/28 "2018-01-28T14:49:34Z")
Take this to heart: Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. Seriously, I’ll hit 65 in a couple of months and I’m more worried about signing up for Medicare benefits than worrying about my age. The teens are formative times, hopefully the adult mold you started on is still solid and the next 50+ years will add more and varied experiences…but never forget how to enjoy life like a kid (you should hear me on rollercoasters). Oh, and get off my lawn. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/29 "2018-01-28T15:02:23Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Meh, turning 20 didn’t bother me. It meant one year closer to being able to go into a bar and buy a beer. If anything, I always looked forward to my 20s, and I somewhat miss them now. Every decade of life has its perks (at least so far, I’m in my early 40s), but it was great being in my 20s with the freedom of adulthood and the confidence and energy of youth. I can’t imagine why anybody would want to stay a teenager. I didn’t dislike my teenage years, but it was so much more fun once I was out of school, living on my own, doing whatever I wanted, and being able to buy a beer while I did it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/30 "2018-01-28T15:09:26Z")
I tried to maintain the emotions and life-style of a teen-ager when I turned 30 … or 40. Certainly I was a happier teenager in my 30’s then I ever was in my teen years. Only when I turned 60 did I finally admit I was middle-aged. ( … But I don’t want to think about the next “milestone,” coming up fast.) ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/31 "2018-01-28T15:13:32Z")
With age comes experience, and with experience comes wisdom. When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much more stupid shit he’d said in seven years. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/32 "2018-01-28T15:14:26Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Move away someplace else, where no-one knows you. Tell everyone you are 19. Do this again, and maybe again, until it becomes impossible to maintain that you are a teen. By then you may be able to cope with being 20. If you move to Hollywood and take up acting, you can be in “90210” and teen-sex comedies into your late 30s and no one will know the difference. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/33 "2018-01-28T15:19:54Z")
I’ve been twenty since I was sixteen. (The drinking age was eighteen then.) So, for the past forty years I have refused to grow up although I have become less devious and far less concerned about how others think of me. ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/34 "2018-01-28T15:26:02Z")
Trust me, at 20 your youth isn’t over. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/35 "2018-01-28T15:26:42Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Leaving the teenage years behind is a very happy thing. Good riddance to them. Soon you will see what I mean. > > I’m 69, and thought of turning 70 scares the crap outta me. You have to grow older, but you can stay immature til you die. Works for me, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/36 "2018-01-28T15:38:17Z")
20 sucked for me. I remember going to the bars with my college roommates. They’d all be drinking, having a good time talking to girls, while I sat there with a black X on my hand drinking soda. Oh, I couldn’t turn 21 fast enough! ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/37 "2018-01-28T15:47:27Z")
[Theme music for the thread.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ8nPYSNobg) ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/38 "2018-01-28T16:02:40Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > You have to grow older, but you can stay immature til you die. Works for me, anyway. I was never immature, even as a child. Sadly, I still have a hard time playing and having fun except in a nerdy way. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/39 "2018-01-28T16:05:30Z")
20 isn’t so bad. When you turn 26 you have to get your own health insurance and then you’re truly fucked. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637/40 "2018-01-28T16:28:40Z")
You’ve got a whole year before the Sandmen hunt you down. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-19-and-the-thought-of-turning-20-scares-me/807637.md?page=3)