# What age would you stay 4ever? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 30, 2004, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823 "2004-05-30T18:52:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/21 "2004-05-31T04:16:33Z")
I’m 45 now, and whatever age it is that, once having reached it, I’d like to just stay there instead of getting older? I haven’t reached it yet. I’m happy to report that 45 is pretty damn good though. ---
**Author:** ![START](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@START](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/START)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/22 "2004-05-31T04:21:27Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Thirty was a good age. I’ll go with that. > > However, I would like to strenuously object to the use of “4ever” in the thread title. Unless you’re missing your F key or someone’s holding a gun to your head and will shoot you if you don’t submit your vitally important question within 15 seconds, there’s no excuse for not writing out “forever”. That is all. Thanx for responding to my thread but I strenuously object to the phrase “strenuously object”. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/23 "2004-05-31T04:30:59Z")
1. The acne had disappeared, and the rest of my body had yet to start falling apart. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/24 "2004-05-31T05:26:25Z")
> [@START](#): > > If you had to choose one age to stay for the next 200 years how old would you be? > You would never get any older than the age you chose and you had to choose an age. > > I think it will be fun once I turn 21 because I’d still be young but old enough to do most things…so if I had to be one age for 200 years I’d be 21. So you wouldn’t chronologically age (i.e. no birthdays, which I wouldn’t mind at all but I’m thinking the kids might get tired of waiting for their birthdays), but would you physically age … or would you mentally age, or anything? Or you’re saying you’d be permanently stuck at one … setting? So your friends would grow up and be able to do stuff you couldn’t do, but you’d get left behind? Thanks just the same, d00d:) ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/25 "2004-05-31T05:29:06Z")
> [@START](#): > > Thanx for responding to my thread but I strenuously object to the phrase “strenuously object”. Along with 4ever, I strenuously object to “thanx.” This aggression against the English language will not stand! I’d pick 26. I’m coming to the conclusion that I completely wasted my 20’s, so I’d like to go back and try it again. And have hundreds of years to get it right. Also, IIRC, I found my first gray chest hair at 27. That wasn’t fun at all. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/26 "2004-05-31T05:42:42Z")
I agree with **START** – at 21, you’re no longer a minor, but still young enough to be a “traditional” college undergrad. I’d be a “permanent student” – as if I were a character on _The Simpsons_, I’d start my senior year anew each time my birthday rolled around. However, I’d keep “transferring” to different campuses, while retaining my memories so I could compare and contrast the academics/architecture/sports/social life/climate of Harvard, Stanford, Louisiana State, Notre Dame, etc., etc., etc. ---
**Author:** ![biqu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@biqu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/biqu)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/27 "2004-05-31T11:40:16Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > People from the age of 3 to 10ish seem to have a huge amount of fun doing the simplest of things, like drawing, or swinging round a post, or climbing on a climbing frame. I want to spend 200 years being in that state where having fun came naturally. As you rightly hinted in your last sentence, having fun naturally is a consequence of a state of mind, not a chronological age. I like to think that no matter how long you have lived, that state of mind is still attainable. But I’ll allow someone more eloquent than I to express these inspiring thoughts. > [@](#): > > Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind; it is a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over love of ease. > Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear, and despair – these are the long, long years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust. > Whether seventy or sixteen, there is in every being’s heart the love of wonder, the sweet amazement at the stars and the starlike things and thoughts, the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for what next, and the joy and the game of life. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear, as young as your hope, as old as your despair. > So long as your heart receives messages of beauty, cheer, courage, grandeur and power from the earth, from man, and from the Infinite, so long you are young. > – Samuel Ullman ---
**Author:** ![Toddly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@Toddly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toddly)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/28 "2004-05-31T13:10:05Z")
My small brain has trouble with the concept of being one age forever but if I had to choose I think that I would settle being 35 or so. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/29 "2004-05-31T13:19:37Z")
I’ll say 18; it’s said that males reach their sexual peak at that age (although I wouldn’t know ☹ ). I still had a fairly optimistic outlook at that age, still believed in progress, that the future would be better than the past. I’ve pretty much lost that within the past few years. Back then everything still seemed new and exciting. ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/30 "2004-05-31T13:27:15Z")
I’d have to muse that I’m not the sort of person who wants to stay in any given state of being forever (and the use of the abomination ‘4ever’ makes me shudder, as a side note). I’ve enjoyed every stage of young adulthood so far, and I can’t imagine right now what it would be like to miss out on all the rest of the process of aging. Sure, at 28 I’m in a really comfortable position to say that, and maybe if I were older the answer would be different. But right now, I’m enjoying the journey. I liked me at 22, I liked the life I had, but I’d not miss out on growth for anything. ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/31 "2004-05-31T13:29:16Z")
Somewhere around 23, I think. I’d be old enough to be legally an adult, but young enough that I’d still have that under-25-year-old appeal that women seem to lose once they pass, well, 25. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/32 "2004-05-31T14:28:29Z")
30-35 somewhere. Old enough to be taken seriously, young enough to have fun. ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/33 "2004-05-31T14:56:54Z")
27, definately. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/34 "2004-05-31T16:12:00Z")
> [@START](#): > > Thanx for responding to my thread but I strenuously object to the phrase “strenuously object”. I object to being the object of your objection, as I find it objectionable. ---
**Author:** ![CalH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ab097/32.png) [@CalH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalH)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/35 "2004-05-31T22:34:10Z")
> [@](#): > > I object to being the object of your objection, as I find it objectionable. Luk. Y u b in lk dis? U N I bth no tht wen alls sed n don, we cn’t fite da tyde - all wee kan doo is mk sor dat en-lish is p-served in sum 4orm r n oder. U got dat Gi? ---
**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/36 "2004-05-31T22:57:50Z")
> [@CalH](#): > > Luk. Y u b in lk dis? U N I bth no tht wen alls sed n don, we cn’t fite da tyde - all wee kan doo is mk sor dat en-lish is p-served in sum 4orm r n oder. U got dat Gi? Ahhhhhhh! That was painful to read, especially after that “4ever” and “thanx.” ---
**Author:** ![CalH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ab097/32.png) [@CalH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalH)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/37 "2004-06-01T00:08:08Z")
I don’t do it any other way, baby. ---
**Author:** ![START](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@START](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/START)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/38 "2004-06-01T04:49:40Z")
> [@iampunha](#): > > So you wouldn’t chronologically age (i.e. no birthdays, which I wouldn’t mind at all but I’m thinking the kids might get tired of waiting for their birthdays), but would you physically age … or would you mentally age, or anything? Or you’re saying you’d be permanently stuck at one … setting? So your friends would grow up and be able to do stuff you couldn’t do, but you’d get left behind? > > Thanks just the same, d00d:) You would stay the same age because you would never look feel or act any older than the age you have chosen and everybody else would be the ages that they have chosen for themselves, so nobody would be “left behind”. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/39 "2004-06-01T05:08:59Z")
Physically, 30. Intellectually, 40. Emotionally and spiritually, 60. I would not give up my current situation to be 30 again. That was a difficult year for me. ---
**Author:** ![OldBroad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@OldBroad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldBroad)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2004, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823/40 "2004-06-01T17:29:42Z")
I’d like to have my present mind and experience level with my 35-year-old body. If I had to give up experience, I’d pick 50. Strength and stamina to spare and an adequate amount of life experience to survive the next 200 years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-age-would-you-stay-4ever/247823.md?page=3)