Are the twenties the best years of your life?

Tom_Cruise

Or is every decade soul destroying ?

4zn76tysfajdxp

Can't it be both?

grindle

Early to mid-twenties. All downhill from there due to responsibilities and your body's slow but steady death.

El Chucko

Twenties for me. 35 now and I feel like I'm on the slide!

El Chucko

El Chucko wrote: »

Twenties for me. 35 now and I feel like I'm on the slide!

And they were the best only because I can't remember most of them!

NoQuarter

Tom_Cruise wrote: »

Or is every decade soul destroying ?

I certainly hope not! I'm bagging on my thirties being the best years!

jobeenfitz

Tom_Cruise wrote: »

Or is every decade soul destroying ?

YES!

Burky126

If it's not,then you're doing it wrong.

That goes for any decade.

That goes for life.

Gee_G

Yes, I think they are the best in a way.

I drank too much, I partied too hard, I blew all my money on stupid things, because I could. But in the meantime,I got my qualifications and now in my late 20's with an amazing son and fiance, I'm ready to become a grown up!

NuckingFacker

Only 21-29, the rest are crap. 30 is :eek: 40 is and 50 is, presumably interspersed with bits of :pac:

The Backwards Man

Every year is the best year of your life.

Kirby92

It is what you make it.

Tom_Cruise

Kirby92 wrote: »

It is what you make it.

so if you make it good, it will be good.

Kirby92

Tom_Cruise wrote: »

so if you make it good, it will be good.

Yup, age is a state of mind. I know I 62 year old who rides motorbikes around Europe. Badass.

kat.mac

Self doubt, confusion, poor decisions and an excess of almost everything.

Yeah, class decade!

juneg

In your 20's you only have to think about yourself.
Responsibilities come later. Not just work / career path but your responsibilities towards your young family and your aging parents.

I'd say I'm a happier more settled person now in my 40's
but dammit the 20's were great crack and you wont get that back again.
Not least because your peers begin to settle down and get sense too! Soon there's no one to go out with!

If you want to go see the world, the 20's are the time to do it. Otherwise you may not get around to it until you are retired.;)

KungPao

Depends on...on...yeah it is.

The rest of our days are rubbish.

Gordon Gecko

Al Capone, the Free State, economic flourish all ending in tears.....'twas some decade alright

Czarcasm

Kirby92 wrote: »

Yup, age is a state of mind. I know I 62 year old who rides motorbikes around Europe. Badass.

Totally agree, I had some great times in my teens, great times in my 20's, I'm in my mid-30's and I still can't say any decade was better than the other, they were all brilliant!

Life is indeed what you make it!

juneg

juneg wrote: »

In your 20's you only have to think about yourself.
Responsibilities come later. Not just work / career path but your responsibilities towards your young family and your aging parents.

I'd say I'm a happier more settled person now in my 40's
but dammit the 20's were great crack and you wont get that back again.
Not least because your peers begin to settle down and get sense too! Soon there's no one to go out with!

If you want to go see the world, the 20's are the time to do it. Otherwise you may not get around to it until you are retired.;)

Says who? I know loads of people in their 20's with either young families or relatives who need looking after.

Itwasntme.

I effing hope not!! I have spent the best part of my twenties studying and not taking up opportunities to be more engaged with the world outside of the different study spaces I've lived in.

When I am finally done, I plan on going out and to quote a friend, "unleashing a tsunami of sin" on the world. I shall gauge myself on all manner of debauchery. The next decade is going to be an ode to pleasure. Hello thirties!

Busted Flat.

Move on lads when you reach the sixties and get in towards the middle, I think it is the best time. You have no money and you don't give a fook. For me it will be worse next year, so what, we will survive, and hopefully the scumbags that destroyed our lives, will have a horrible and painful death.

Richard Hillman

Everyone is different. My teens were by far better than my 20s

Swordfish trombone

The year I left secondary school (as a 17 yo) I remember a teacher telling us that the best days of your life are those from when you leave school to the day you get married. He was telling us to enjoy the utter irresponsibilty of 'youth', of everything, before committing to life and responsibility and adulthood and taxes and family and mortage etc etc. He was right -and I'm older now than he was when he dispensed his advice.

Miike

www.ted.com/talks/meg_jay_why_30_is_not_the_new_20.html

biko

Tom_Cruise wrote: »

Or is every decade soul destroying ?

Particularly the first one.

Legs.Eleven

For me personally, in terms of craic and debauchery....yes, the 20s were the best for that. Make the most of them. Do everything and everyone under the sun.

In terms of being more consistently happier in my head and not thinking my arse is fat all the time...my 30s.

kowloon

I really hope not.

The Backwards Man

What's really depressing is that there are probably some people reading this thread that were born in this century.:(

Tom_Cruise

Swordfish trombone wrote: »

The year I left secondary school (as a 17 yo) I remember a teacher telling us that the best days of your life are those from when you leave school to the day you get married. He was telling us to enjoy the utter irresponsibilty of 'youth', of everything, before committing to life and responsibility and adulthood and taxes and family and mortage etc etc. He was right -and I'm older
now than he was when he dispensed his advice.

So roughly 17 to 30? Is that right?

Swordfish trombone

Swordfish trombone wrote: »

The year I left secondary school (as a 17 yo) I remember a teacher telling us that the best days of your life are those from when you leave school to the day you get married. He was telling us to enjoy the utter irresponsibilty of 'youth', of everything, before committing to life and responsibility and adulthood and taxes and family and mortage etc etc. He was right -and I'm older now than he was when he dispensed his advice.

It's not as if you leave school and then live in some sort of wonderland until you get married. You have all kinds of responsibilities in your twenties - work, renting a place, bills, taxes. Perhaps not kids and a mortgage, but lots of people never have those. I know I'm relatively 'free' compared to people without kids, but that's because I haven't had kids yet, not because of my age. I've never felt this 'irresponsibility' you speak of, bar perhaps on my Erasmus year.

Tom_Cruise

kowloon wrote: »

I really hope not.

Can i ask why?

Swordfish trombone

Tom_Cruise wrote: »

So roughly 17 to 30? Is that right?

It was for me......what age did you leave school, get married? I'm not laying this as a definative yardskick, just a memory of a piece of advice, nothing more.

Tom_Cruise

Swordfish trombone wrote: »

It was for me......what age did you leave school, get married? I'm not laying this as a definative yardskick, just a memory of a piece of advice, nothing more.

17, not married. I don't think i want to get married now either.

feargale

The nineties are best. Sleep all day if you want, and sex is simply a state of mind, requiring no effort. No work to do, patriarchal status and big president's cheque to look forward to, resulting in almighty piss-up. What a way to go!

jupiterjack

no

pragmatic1

Apparently men are at their happiest when they've settled down with a family and are on a career path. These things normally happen for men in their 30s nowadays.

Cupcake_Crisis

No. 20 to 23 have been shite. I want to be 18 again.

Tom_Cruise

Cupcake_Crisis wrote: »

No. 20 to 23 have been shite. I want to be 18 again.

Maybe - just for one day, you can pretend your 18. Seriously that could work.

kowloon

Tom_Cruise wrote: »

Can i ask why?

Knowing the best is in the past is no way to live.

Cupcake_Crisis

Tom_Cruise wrote: »

Maybe - just for one day, you can pretend your 18. Seriously that could work.

I can't remember how to be 18 again I was so young and carefree.

whatdoicare

I like being alive, it's awesome.

Tom_Cruise

Any one in their forty's or fifties here that are not happy and content? Are we all going to make it?

wow sierra

Late 40s and very happy with my life right now. But yes 20s are the best years of your life - or they have the best potential to be- if you **** them up or happen to be going through a bad time then, they wont be. But your body is at its best (need hardly any sleep, can eat or drink most things without a hassle,etc), and chances are you don't have children,mortgage,ageing parents to take care of, contemporary music still excites you etc etc etc)

40 didn't bother me, I know 50 won't bother me, but looking back turning 30 is still traumatic :)

grindle

wow sierra wrote: »

...but looking back turning 30 is still traumatic :)

Any tips for wading through this? Annus horribilis indeed. :mad:

Cody Pomeray

If someone in their 20s told me they were ecstatic with their life, or that life was treating them well, I'd be worried they were doing it wrong.

If you're never in trouble with an authority, hotfooting it from crisis to crisis, sometimes overcome with anguish, and mostly broke, then I'm afraid your youth isnt going to be worth a fcuk, and you may really be wasting it.

For the record, I'm 23 and I still have a bit to go. But going on what I've learned from the last few years, I think catastrophe is the greatest teacher I've ever had the chance to study beneath!

herisson

So far my 20s have been sh.it I really hope they improve.

Kichote

Pixie-Fairy wrote: »

So far my 20s have been sh.it I really hope they improve.

How much of them have you left? Half way through em myself and feck it things would want to start picking up.

Everyone else my age has gone to far flung places on their own, consumed more booze in a week than i do all year, had sex with loads of strangers, got a decent well paying job even though they might have lost it since. I'd better get moving before i'm too crippled by old age to do anything

herisson

Kichote wrote: »

How much of them have you left? Half way through em myself and feck it things would want to start picking up.

Everyone else my age has gone to far flung places on their own, consumed more booze in a week than i do all year, had sex with loads of strangers, got a decent well paying job even though they might have lost it since. I'd better get moving before i'm too crippled by old age to do anything

Um 8 years left :pac:

I'm at a standstill, most of my friends have well paid jobs and know what they want to do. I'm stuck with a part time job saving like crazy for masters I don't know ill get. Haven't been great so far but hopefully it will improve.

Kichote

Pixie-Fairy wrote: »

Um 8 years left :pac:

I'm at a standstill, most of my friends have well paid jobs and know what they want to do. I'm stuck with a part time job saving like crazy for masters I don't know ill get. Haven't been great so far but hopefully it will improve.

Could be worse, I havn't even a part time job to be stuck with. Even working in a pub or a chipper requires 5 years experience now or else it's an internship.

The Barefoot Pizza Thief

Tom_Cruise wrote: »

Any one in their forty's or fifties here that are not happy and content? Are we all going to make it?

Happiness, I think is about health, peace of mind and having a little more money / material possessions than you really need. Sure if you're ill in your teens or have a lot of strife in your life, then why on earth would you be happier than a 50 year old that doesn't. Happiness has little to do age other than you may have less time to work at things which you'd like to but the things that bring true happiness are available to people of all ages and the converse is also true: things that bring misery and suffering to us (ill-health, poverty, struggles and strife in all the forms they come in) can also very easily befall young folk.

We tend to associate ill health etc with people getting on (and statistically I guess there is some justification in that) but it's no where near a hard and fast rule and many people have miserable young lives and only find peace, health or happiness later on in life. I think the biggest lesson you need to learn in life (the younger the better) is that what may seem like insignificant decisions to you at the time, have the potential to effect you and yours for the rest of your life. I don't think it is a coincidence that the happiest people I know where the ones that always had an eye on the future and seemed to have an almost chess like ability to see ten, twenty years down the line just what may happen if they made that particular move in life or not and so pulled back, and the people I know who had miserable lives, tended to have been the opposite types, that lived life to the max without much thought on how things may pan out. Considering the long term consequences of life decions comes easier to some than others I guess. We did do life skills in my school but I always used that period to do my Maths homework.

Whenever I'm feeling old, I like to remind myself that Al Pacino is now 73 and when he was 61, he impregnated the chick from National Lampoon's European Vacation. She was 50 when she gave birth. To twins! So, you never know what's round the corner, could be good, could be bad but by and large, you make your own luck and reap what you sow (and also what others sow for you) both good and bad.