I’ve done the 40 and 50 and I have 60 staring me in the face. So far I’m right with the OP: of all the birthdays ending in 0, becoming 20 was the most disturbing.
20?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Get back to me in 40-50 years.
Run, Logan, run!!!
The Sandmen don’t come until you’re 30, and then only if you don’t go to Carousel.
I’ll see your forty and raise you ten years (can’t believe I’m 50 now – surreal).
OP: live! Have experiences and take risks (not stuntman-type, moreso do Europe on a shoestring budget). Don’t get tied down with a relationship or job. This is the opposite of what I did and I regret it.
If I could live my early 20s again I’d see the world and have experiences of the non-lethal and non-credit -ruining kinds of things.
Also: don’t ruin your credit. You’ll need a decent score later in life.
Also: stop worrying. The worst things you worry about have a very slim chance of happening. You’ll be just fine. I really didn’t get up on my paws until I was 28 and went to college.
Pretty soon those prepaid funeral ads will be coming your way, along with the ones for hearing aids and AARP.
I’m 40. You couldn’t pay me enough money to go back to 19. My life is a million times better now. Yes, I have more responsibilities. But I have much more freedom and wherewithal.
Everything’s a trade-off. Adolescence has its upsides, sure. But the downsides are pretty shitty. It is nice being able to look back and say “Glad those days are behind me!”
For me, the ideal age, if I were to pick an age and stick there, would be 38. (Jack Benny picked 39.) You’re old enough to be taken seriously, but still not “old,” and in fact, barely middle-aged. Or maybe 42… But hell, right now, I’d love to see 50 again.
Not much to add that hasn’t been covered already, except to say that the years bring a certain wisdom whether we wish it or not. Twenty can be a great year, but twenty-one is better. As Homer Simpson said: “When I was twenty-one, I drank some very good beer.”
Not me, I’m looking forward to it. My 60s were “The Decade Of Not Giving A F*ck What People Think”, and it was very liberating.
My advice for young’uns (like the OP): Growing up is awesome. You get to leave behind the unproductive stuff (like worrying about your hair, being bothered by gossip, etc)… and you get to keep the fun stuff*!*
F’rinstance, I still play with legos, do graffiti and gaming, and buy comic books and vinyl.
Damn, I think I lost The World’s Smallest Violin.
Read a book, movie-watcher!
(Domed cities my ass)…
Same boat here, and it does scare me in a meta way. I compare where I am to where my parents were when they were my age. I consider that it is likely that I have lived half my life now, the time I have spent here is probably more than the time I have left (barring some medical tech improvements), but the number itself, not really.
20 didn’t faze me at all, I don’t think. 21 was cool, because I could legally drink, but i’ve never been much in that scene. I felt a bit old at 25 when a friend (who was 23 at the time) said I was a quarter of a century old. Same number, but does give it more weight.
When I turned 30, I told my older friends that I could trust them now, and told my younger that they couldn’t trust me. That was a bit of an interesting milestone.
I’ll be turning 40 in a few months. Nothing really fun about that, but it is a good point, when I look back at my 20ish year old antics, I have a bit of difficulty not feeling some embarrassment about that awkward kid who thought he knew everything.
I’ve probably had the most fun in my life after the age of 45 (and that age arrived 15 years ago) and it’s still ongoing. Frankly, I think the best may yet to be. Or not. We’ll see.
20 was fun, though. Of course the drinking age was 18 back then.
Life will get better, then worse, then better. It does for most of us.
I am so glad that I am the ignorant, stressed up basketcase I was at 19. Worried about being too tall, will I ever find the right guy, be “sombody,” or any of that. I’m so over it. On the other hand, I do wish that my energy level can be wnat it was at 19. But that’s about it. Educate yourself, don’t do drugs or alcohol in a big way. Be a friend, make more friends, volunteer to make a difference. Life does get even better.
Moderator Warning
Did you think you would have plausible deniability mocking a painful issue for the OP in an unrelated thread? Not so much. Here’s a warning for being a jerk.
:smack: That I am NOT the basketcase I was.
Where did that word run off to? Okay, sometimes, I am still a basketcase, but not nearly as often as I was at 19. 
After turning 32, I started giving my age in Celsius. It sounds much better.
Neil.
mmm
I’m not a drinker, haha.