During which years of your life do you consider yourself to have been the happiest?
Can you include your current age (or age range) and where you were born and raised?
Also include gender, if you want.
Hmm, overall, the past 4 or 5. There have certainly been some down times, but also the best times.
50, male, born in Iowa, raised in upstate NY.
Probably 1989-1991. I was stationed in Germany. The best friends of my life. Tight like family. Exploring a different country. Young and free and flying in helicopters. Young enough that living in barracks didn’t bother me much. I’m 45 now and recent years are up and down.
Male, 58, born and raised in San Diego.
All things considered, I would say 2002-2005. I took an sizable early retirement offer at the end of 2001 and spent 4 years traveling and doing whatever the hell I wanted to. Not a care in the world, as they say.
34 y/o Bostonian.
Happiest from age 18 to 23-ish. And again since age 31.
1997 to 2001 - despite going through a separation/divorce toward the end.
That was the period in which I met the eventual ex-wife, and really found myself, as they say. We got married and moved to San Francisco, and I found a city to fall in love with to go along with the nuptials. And not to get too toady about it, but that’s when I signed up here too – which I mention mostly because of all of the terrific friends I made through the boards – like real life, face to face, come have a drink with me I’m depressed, type friends.
Even the separation, which stung like a motherfucker, taught me so much about myself. I’d say “grew” more in those 5 year than any other.
Of course, now, after ten years in Maine, I’ve regressed back into a cube-rat, but it’s never too late to make another come back.
ETA: Oh … I’m 47. Male.
55, female. Best years, 1981-1987. Just out of grad school and had my first professional job in Washington, D.C. I didn’t have much and didn’t want much. Had a small group of close friends, loved my job, walked everywhere, learned to ride and started my current “horses are my life.” Was 30 pounds thinner, too!
Now I live about 50 miles outside of Chicago.
65, male. The past 20 years with my present wife have been the best.
Male 39 - Born and raised in Louisiana. Lives in Massachusetts now.
I am happier now than any time I have been in my life except possibly for some parts of college. It has been this way ever since about a year after I got divorced and learned that I am an heir to a fortune at about the same time. That combo fixed the two big issues in my life.
Male 64, I never remember not being happy. I guess it is all a matter of perspective though. My brothers used to tell me how sorry my mom felt for me working so much and paying alimony and child support for so long. Money has come and gone and never phased me, nothing seems to phase me actually.
Male, 45, born & raised in Philly suburbs.
The last ten years or so have been the best of my life, and every year is better than the last. When I was a kid I was pretty carefree and happy, but I knew I was uncomfortable in many ways, dorky, didn’t fit in, and tried to hide my discomfort with self-deprecating humor. As I got older, high school and college, I was trying to find myself, figure out what everything meant. In my 20’s I drank a lot and went through the post-college career angst- what did I want to do with my life?
I married at 31 and that’s when everything fell into place. I’m comfortable with who I am, I have a fantastic wife, two great kids that are growing up into amazing little people, a decent job and comfortable salary, material needs and creature comforts are being addressed… I’m probably the happiest these days that I’ve been in my life.
30, probably around the 21-22 age up until about 25, assuming that generally childhood isn’t really a fair answer. During that time I was finishing up undergrad, went on to grad school, started a job ?I enjoyed, staying busy and relatively low stress. All of my closest friends were nearby and we spent a lot of time. The two fondest memories of my adult life, by quite a large margin, happened in that time period, one near the beginning, the other near the end, got engaged. I pretty much had everything I wanted or was well on track toward the things I wanted.
It basically came to an end as I was just doing too much and started to burn out, which led into depression, my engagement broke up badly, work became a lot more stressful, and friends started moving away or getting too busy or whatever.
Male, 64, born and raised in New Jersey.
I’ve had my share of up years and down years, but I’d have to say the best years of my life are pretty much right now. We’re doing fine financially, the kids are grown up and successful, and our first granddaughter was born about two months ago.
My golf game is starting to disintegrate, but it’s doing slow at a slower rate of speed than that of my similarly-aged golf buddies, so I can take that in stride.
All in all, my forties were pretty good, my fifties were better, and my sixties have been better still. I like this trend…
Female, 31, born in Arkansas and currently living in Maine.
I’ve had a lovely life and have always been pretty happy, but the past couple of years have just been amazing. Every year seems to get better, I feel extremely fortunate.
Male, late 50s, grew up in northern Virginia.
There was an astoundingly good year or so towards the end of high school, and then there’s been the last three and a half years, since we brought the Firebug home from Russia.
Not that there haven’t been good times in between, but those two times are easily the best.
Female, 41, Eastern Nebraska.
I’d have to pick the mid-to-late-90s. I’d just gotten my first real “professional” job (in an office) and my income had scaled up accordingly. I moved away from home, but not far (maybe 10 minutes or so). Some of my favorite video games had just been released - Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 7 - and I actually had time to play them! It was only a few years after college so my friends and I were still close. And I even got to go to Anime Expo in I think, '96?
The crazy thing is I really wasn’t happy with that job at all. Customer service was a really poor fit for me. I took everything personally, so I was miserable. Then in 2000-2001 I was diagnosed with depression, and things went a little downhill from there.
But today, I’m doing a bit better. Yeah, I’m on disability, which is not ideal. But it’s giving me time and benefits to get myself together again, and I don’t intend to be on it indefinitely. However my back (which was not my original problem) may have other ideas. :sigh:
I do find I’m more grateful for things than I used to be - little stuff like napping with my cat, salted caramel truffle ice cream, getting custom artwork of the girl I write about, watching Adventure Time with my friends. It’s nice to not be QUITE so miserable all the time. 
Take care everyone. Wouldn’t it be nice if our best days were yet to come?
Female, 32, born in the rust belt but raised & still live in the midwest (um, of America).
I think the happiest years of my life were ages 3-7. I was old enough to wipe my own bottom but still too little to worry about things. I was happy at school, popular with my friends, and too little for my parents to criticize much. Those were the golden years.
These last four years with my husband are the runner up.
I think now is the happiest period in my life. I find being a Mum more fulfilling than anything else I’ve ever done. I’m happy in my relationship, I have great friends and my various problems and woes are of the first world variety. It’s a good time to be me.
Female, upper Midwest US, mid-50s.
Hm. Probably happiest during the little I remember of being a small child, under age 8. In 4th grade things started gradually going downhill and in the early 1990s I fell into an abyss, and I’m still falling.
Male, 32, lived in and around Flint, Michigan my entire life. I would say the years together with my ex-girlfriend, 2003-2006, have been the best years of my life. Actually, it’s no contest. We traveled together all over the country, we lived together and I actually have fond memories of that time in my life.
Our break-up was a complicated, awful mess that I won’t get into here but suffice it to say it was my fault. Our love was intense and a part of me will always be hers; no one has stolen my heart before her or since. Learning about myself from that relationship-and the pitfalls within it-has been a very difficult process for me to fully accept. But I am a richer person because of it (or so I keep telling myself).