Things that used to piss me off in my 20s, don’t anymore.
I can now see why the 60s cry was ‘don’t trust anyone over 30’ because now I can see just how stupid things were back then.
Mellowed out some and can understand why our national learders are usually older people.
Less of a tendency to get into trouble. (I like that one.)
What? Me worry?’
A mixture of a lot of the above:
With age has come a certain peace with what was good with the past. Like Opal, it’s strange to look at your parents from an adult perspective and realize, yeah, those all-powerful people were just human and screwed up. But like Byz, I’ve also realized that a lot of it was good (or at least strengthening) and I’m not condemned to repeat the bad parts! i.e. take the strength, let the rest go.
With age has come both kindness and focus. It’s easier to empathize without getting caught in the emotional morass. Shit most certainly do happen. The only option is to deal with it.
Feminine sidenote: I am less concerned with my appearance than I have ever been. And I’ve never been so effortlessly attractive. Truly weird. Looking at old photos objectively, I was at least an approximate babe all those years I hated my looks. Now that I’ve stopped worrying and enjoy other people, people react so positively. (Seems like my dad said something about people liking people who liked them back…hmmmm.)
I like the laugh lines and tolerance age bring. Being young was great. So is some mileage.
Veb
oh, yeah! well put, veb, altho even when i was younger, i was never interested in going back. i always felt as tho i had been born old, that old soul thing. it’s like canadian sue said, being in your prime is a really good thing. & this is most definitely prime, the place where i should be & have been heading toward for a long time.
Also gravity.
Three things happen as you get older, first i s your memory goes, I forget the other two.
Well, this has been MY experience. 
Ok, I’m not that old, but with each passing year I take more and more pleasure in just not giving a fat rat’s patootie what people think of me or my life. It’s so entirely liberating!
I feel no need to prove myself to anyone (bosses included), anymore. I’ve learned that I’ve got certain skills/talents that will ALWAYS be in demand in the workplace, and will bring me reasonable financial “freedom,” so I’ll never feel stuck in any job or in any field that doesn’t meet MY standards. I’ve discovered that I’m no longer willing to do things that make me miserable, so I’ve tried to just stop doing those things. I’ve found it’s ok to avoid and/or remove inconsequential or negative people in my life, who drain my energy and waste my time.
I’ve discovered that, even when you think the time for this or that has passed, sometimes you get another opportunity, and you should DEFINITELY take the chance. I’ve learned to not fear taking risks - failure isn’t a death sentence.
StoryTyler
“Not everybody does it, but everybody should.”
I Spy Ty.
&, of course, you learn via failures. if you’re not making mistakes, you’re probably not trying anything new. how dull.
honestly, not to cast aspersions on the motivations for the thread that precipitated this one, i am so glad to see that so many others are of a like mind in being happy about where they are. the ‘giveashit’ factor becomes less important all the time. it really becomes all about (at long last) your own happiness first, which is practical & self-enhancing rather than selfish.
now, if i could just figure out that ‘more time at surfing’ thing mentioned above . . .
hmmmmm well…we definitely have a diverse age group on the board
20s…still kids
30s…away from mom and dad…on the way to the learning curve…drying out behind the ears some
40s…in the curve…in the prime…know just enough to be dangerous and not care
50s and up…woooo in the groove…life is finally where it should be…the best years with more to come…
StoryTyler
“Not everybody does it, but everybody should.”
I Spy Ty.
I like that I’ve grown out of the teen-age angst. I used to be embarrassed about *everything." My shoes, my hair, my figure, my family.
Now I can pull a tampon out of my purse in public and it doesn’t even faze me…
I like the way that my physical age has finally caught up with my mental age.
Woah, did THAT sound pretensious!
I like the way that I can be myself, without feeling self consious anymore. Being quiet is bad when you’re 18. It’s pretty cool at 30.
I like the way that I’m getting older, but I don’t really feel older. I really do feel like I’ve caught up!
I love my laugh lines. For awhile there, I never thought I’d smile enough to get them.
You say “cheesy” like that’s a BAD thing.
I have fun saying things like, ‘IVe been surfing [ocean] here before you were born, so stay off my waves!’
Handy, are you the webmaster/editor of the PG webpage? Pretty cool! I’ve never gone to see the butterflies and I need to do that at least once in my life - I’d also hate to miss the Christmas tree at the gas station near the post office!
Is Pacific Grove doable as a day-trip from the Bay Area?
StoryTyler
“Not everybody does it, but everybody should.”
I Spy Ty.
When I was younger, I had many firey , passionately held beliefs.
Thank Heavens I lost them.
They were all either foolishly irrelevant, transient things; or else part of the Human condition–and therefore unchangeable except by giving up my very Humanity, or by the rest of the world givimg up it’s Humanity.
“Show me a sane man, and I will cure him for you.”----Jung
Financial security
Patience
Experience
Memories
Inventions (Internet / SDMB!)
Why doesn’t the sun come out at night when the light would be more useful? (Pratchett)
What do I like? I’ll tell you what I like. I like pkkobf sy rwn oerrt tiybf rgubfa…??? Wait a minute, let me get my glasses.
Now, what? Oh, yeah. Things ain’t the way they used to be, that’s for sure. We used to burn coal. Year-round. Damn, it got hot in the summertime. That was before they invented Daylight Savings…we had to carry daylight around in boxes and then ration it out in the dark winter days when the sun was only full about two days out of the month. Except during the War, when we were only allowed about 40 watts of sunlight a week. The War was Hell, let me tell you. But it was nothing compared to the Dept. of Motor Vehicles. Don’t go there if you can help it. We didn’t have your fancy cars and all-- just wagons with square wheels and 3-legged mules to tote 'em. Times were tough, but the meat was tougher. Those were the days, I’m telling you.
What do I like? I’d like very much to have a nice bowel movement, thank you.
yeah, & i bet those mules had to haul the wagons uphill in the snow both ways!
You bet they did, young’un! And they never complained, not like the mules these days with their Animal Rights Ammendments and all. I bet if I made a mule joke today they’d slap me right in jail with the LSD smokers and brick-rock dealers and whatnot. That’s the trouble with kids and mules and everybody these days: they don’t know the meaning of hard work and couldn’t take a joke if ya slathered it up with sugar and lard.
hey, that must be why someone invented those stupid-ass emoticons! i knew there had to be a really good reason . . . .
and to quote heatherlee, “lollollollollol (et al)”.