I haven’t been young for a long long time, thank goodness! I was stoopid when I was young! 
Not always. Yeah, things were great for me when I was 28 too. I just graduated business school and moved to Manhattan for a great job. A lot of my friends still lived close by and we used to hang out all the time. of course it rocked.
At 38, i’ve seen little to indicate that shit does, in fact, get better with age.
I’m trying to talk from a biological point of view. There comes a certain time when you can’t (in good faith) say “X is young”. I think a lot of this has to do with baby boomers and gen Xers. They just can’t accept they’re getting (for Xers)/are old (boomers). So, 30 is the new 20. 2020, 40 will be the new 20. 2030 50 will be the new 20. :eek: At some point this has to stop. It’s the nature of things. At some point we’re all young and all some point (unless you die young) you’re gonna be old. Now, I’m not saying you’re 30 and you’re old as dirt. You’re 30 and older and it’s time to die. Fuck, you can be 100. Seriously, at a certain point you’re not young any more. Saying you are (despite how you feel :rolleyes:) is just being in denial.
I feel young and will until I hit 40. Then I’ll feel like, and start referring to myself as middle aged. But not a day before.
Edit: Well, even after I might still feel young, but I won’t call myself that.
I have checked the records, son. You are not merely still young; you are still ridiculously young. Ridiculously. You’re so young it makes me want to vomit. It’s all I can do to keep from slapping you.
Further examination of the Moirae’s plans for you indicate that you are scheduled to become middle aged on 7 December 2034. On that date whatever youthful optimism and vigor you still retain will be removed, by force if necessary, and it will be replaced with bitterness, cynicism, despair, and simmering rage. I’m not sure you’ll even like Tolkien after that.
I’m 31, and work with kids year-round.
When I started what I do, I was only 4 years older than the high school seniors, and still felt like a peer of theirs, of a sort.
Some time in the last, oh, three years, I’ve definitely felt that they (in general) are kids and I’m an adult. The way they interact with me has changed subtly, and there is a wall that wasn’t there when I was, say 23 or 24.
So, by some measure anyway, I’m “old”. Or, at least “old compared to some.” When I was 20 I was too old to really fit in with the 10 year olds. I was fine with that. Now I don’t really fit in with the 20 year olds, and I don’t know how I feel about that.
When (ahem) younger girls start calling you sir.
As you get older, you care less about what 20 year olds think because you realize most of them don’t know shit.
The whole X is the new X-Y thing is fine if that’s what you need to continue to enjoy life to its fullest. People are throwing away the notion that once you hit 25, you should spend the rest of your life working and sitting in your recliner watching TV. Whether you are “young” according to some Madison Avenue definition of a target consumer demographic is irrelevant.
That said, I don’t believe in perpetually trying to cling to your early 20s. As you age, you are expected to grow and mature and behaviors that were acceptible when you were 18, you should know better when you are 28, 38 or 48.
I also don’t go for this whole youth culture worship. “Young” implies a lack of maturity and development. Being young is exciting because everything is new and everything seems possible. However, being young also means a lack of knowledge and experience and the wisdom that comes with it.
We need a mid-tween category or something for the “no longer young but not quite middle aged, grudgingly accepting the bifocals but in denial about the streak of grey hair on our chins that gets shaved off every morning” folks. (age 38 falls into that one.)
I’m 43 (turning 44 in a couple of months) and I definitely consider myself middle-aged. Assuming I make it to the ripe old age of 86. If you go by life expectancy, you actually hit middle age in your late 30s.
I experienced the whole “time is passing much faster now” thing and I think it boils down to percentages. When you’re 10, a year is a much larger chunk of your life than when you’re 30.
Bri2k
- Or if you are gay, 30.
Lather was 30 years old today, they took away all of his toys. His mother sent newspaper clipping to him about his old friends that stopped being boys.
“old” is easy to define:
it’s the age at which people do things that you don’t want to do, and can hardly imagine yourself ever wanting to do.
the numbers are irrelevant–its the “doing” that determines who is old and who isn’t.
You and the person in the cublicle next to you may be the same number , say 26 yrs old. But after work, you are planning to get drunk tonite, and she is planning to go shopping for baby formula. You can’t imagine ever doing that, and don’t even know which store carries baby products .
or if you are both a generation older, say 49, talking about vacations. You are planning a ski trip and a stop in Vegas with your buddies. She is planning a luxury cruise with a few friends some of whom will be bringing their grandchildren.
And when you’re 80—you talk about the new car you bought, and she talks about the nursing home she’s moving to.
“middle-aged” has definitely moved. I’m 30, and frankly I don’t feel that much different than when I was 20. It is very strange - when I was a kid, 40 seemed like old. Now I work with guys in their 40s and they still seem youthful. I’d put middle age as starting at 45, though better medicine and health-care keep pushing that back. Probably the only age-things I’ve noticed for myself are:
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I’m going gray. This for me started at age 23; I’m proably 30% salt on the salt and pepper scale.
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I’ve mellowed my smart mouth and backtalk. I’ve always been a mouthy guy, but specifically from age 25 to 30, I’ve gotten way better at holding back. Part of this is probably biological (guys under 25 are WAY more recklessly impulsive) and part is probably just from working in a professional environment, where I got smacked down more than a few times for back-sassing upper-management.
I’d say, still, there are signs you are no longer young. I saw one today. I was playing in a charity golf tourney with two friends, aged 36 and 51.
Both are in better shape than me. But both started complaining of stiffness and aches after about 13 holes. My own out-of-shape ass didn’t mind it at all. Both told me, “wait until you’re older.”
My grandfather once took me aside and said: “Look, you can do anything to your body until you’re 50. After that you’re slow to recover.”
So maybe 45-50, you’re no longer young? I’ll let you know when I get there.
People are aging better today than in the past. A 50 year old today looks about like what a 40 year old looked like 20 years ago.
And young and old are so relative. I’m in my late 30’s. Just 3 or 4 years ago people in their 40’s and older were calling me kid, and a few days ago in a work meeting somebody mentioned the 80’s, and said he thought I probably would have been to young to remember. I didn’t correct him. 
Yet, for all the talk some people will have about starting to get old in their 40s or 50s, what’s the one thing somebody says if somebody in that age range dies? “They were so young.” And, “They were too young to die.”
I don’t think we’ll every agree on what’s young, what’s old, and what’s in-between.
I’m 61, called myself “middle-aged” the other day, and an older friend laughed and told me I was old; that “middle-aged” means 35 (half of the nominal threescore-and-ten). But I see that the Oxford English Dictionary takes my side: “from about 45 to 65.”
When I was 21, 30 seemed old but by 29, it didn’t. Similarly with 40, 50 … and I still don’t feel old at 61! I’m sure, however, that a magic mind swap would reveal that my 61-year old self has aches and pains I’ve grown used to, that I didn’t have at 21.
The changing “speed of time” can be … frightening. Sometimes when speaking of a news event, I’ll describe it as “quite recent” and a friend will say “No, it was five years ago” and I’ll say, “Yeah, that’s what I meant.” 
It can be a bad sign when they start flirting with you. 
At age 40 you’re a threat; by 60 you’re a cuddly grandfather figure.
I suppose I’m no longer young when I look at pictures of Gwen Stefani or Catherine Zeta Jones and say with some surprise, “wow, she’s still looking pretty good for someone . . . my age.”
I find Valerie Bertinelli hot, and she’s 13 years older than I am.
I only just realized I was no longer young when I was at my son’s kindergarten open house for parents (code for: opportunity for parents to fill out yet more forms). I was sitting with all the other parents filling out forms and looking around and thought, “Wow, people sure are having kids late these days. Everyone here looks old.” Then I did a facepalm when I realized that we were all probably roughly the same age.
I certainly wouldn’t classify myself as “old,” but young I ain’t.
Ohhhhh please…:eek: young is a state of mind. i’m 42 so what lol. I will always be young. i can still think like a kid and go have fun like one. The moment you stop smiling or doing something absalutley silly is the day your old. I still go sledding and skateing, i still play ps2 and wii (i’m a closet nerd lol) Sometimes my son who is 18 will stay up 10-15 hours straight playing ps2 games. I still color in coloring books and love Tinker Bell and Stitch, I still cry at Bambi for heavens sake. Old is a state of mind, there is no middle age or old. Old is when I have finally passed on because my darn body gave out on me. So relax enjoy life have fun be fun.