We’re Not Young - parody of We Are Young by Fun.
Funny songs, but I feel like I have heard a lot of people in their 30s, or even their 20s complain about being “old”. I just turned 40 and while I don’t feel like a 22 year old college student, I don’t exactly feel like an old man past his prime either.
So what’s the deal? People going through quarter life crisis? Depressed people projecting all their problems on not being 18 like women project them on “being fat”?
I though 40 was supposed to be the new 30, not the other way around.
I think part of it is that people grow up more slowly now than in the past. I got married when I was 31 and had my first child at 34. My parents got married and had kids in their early to mid 20s. So people who are still socially “teenagers” or twentysomethings suddenly realise that their calendar age is way past what it feels like it should be given their stage in life. Hence sudden panic “Oh my god I’m in my 30s and I haven’t got my shit together at all.”
Or at least that’s my take on it. A lot of 30-year-olds these days have achieved less (at least in terms of “settling down”) than they would have done in the past. That can lead to an early “crisis” that manifests itself in moaning about being old.
We’re all older than we’ve ever been before.
I’m 40, and while I don’t feel the way I used to think of 40-year-olds, I am aware that there is likely not much time left to do a lot of the things I’d like to do, so in that sense, I do feel old. Young people feel that their time is limitless, in spite of knowing that it isn’t.
I also think that we have become too much of a “youthcentric” culture. We are constantly being bombarded with images of celebrities and athletes (who are typically young) or stories about people like Mark Zuckerberg becoming a billionaire before he’s 30. People don’t believe in working your way up anymore. They think that you have a limited window of opportunity to score a big win.
Yep. I’m 24 and a few months ago, my dad mentioned that when he was my age, he’d been married for several months and then I came along a little less than a year later. I realize that there’s no reason our two lives should be following the same track but I can’t help but feel like I’m falling behind. My parents were a year away from owning a house, from becoming a family, from being the together, capable people who’ve always looked and sounded to me like they knew and understood what this life thing is all about anyway, meanwhile, I had a lunchable for dinner yesterday.
I’m 30, and I complain a lot about being old. It’s because my body doesn’t function the way that it used to.
I get tired at 9:00pm. At the end of the day, my body hurts. It takes more effort to do things. I’ve always had health problems but it seems only recently that things just hurt for no damn reason at all. I’m becoming sensitive to things like sitting too long or sleeping in odd positions or sometimes just, like, existing.
The better I take care of my body the less I feel this way. I am getting into a lot better shape and eating nutritious food. But I still feel this way to some degree and I realize to some extent, there is no going back. That makes me feel old.
I’m 38 and I don’t feel old. I play competitive tennis against guys half my age and I can hold my own. It does take me longer to recover though, and that sucks.
I’m 28 and I feel old because I’m bummed about the way my life has turned out. Many people my age and much younger have already accomplished so much more than me, and I feel like my time is running out for me to accomplish all those things. Also, I’m too old for many student discounts and youth orchestras and such things.
Years ago people wanted to be adults so that they could take advantage of all the world had to offer. Now everyone want to be young, because that’s what the world caters to.
I am 70 and I do remember different stages in my life and how I felt about it.
Got married at 19. (Not that uncommon back then). By 27 I had 2 kids and a mortgage. Wasn’t unusual at all. I felt young and doing what I thought society expected me to do.
At 30 I was on top of the world. I could do anything I did at 20 and much better doing it and much much better at being smart about doing what I did.
40 sucked. Couldn’t see up close anymore without glasses.
50 was really bad. Arthritis starting to settle in, making my job as an appliance mechanic very difficult. Ended up having to quit a very lucrative career sooner than I thought I would. But since I married so young I was able to put both my children through college.
Not going to talk about 60 or 70. It just gets worse.
But… The good side of it is that it all happens so slowly, aging does. So You are able to get used to it. Nature is very kind that way.
Anyway…rambling a bit in my dotage…I can’t imagine anyone in their 20’s or early 30’s feeling OLD. Those years were the prime of my life.
Young folks have whinged about being old for more than a century, and probably a lot longer than that; it’s a fun affectation. (AE Housman did that a lot, too. Maybe it’s only kids with two first initials who do it.)