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  • Mentally, I still feel like I am the same person as back when I was a teenager, until I actually meet some real teenagers and thought "oh, they are a bunch of children.", and then "wait, was I actually as immature as them when I was a teen? That's not the way I remembered it."

    • Exactly! When I was younger I wasn't that immature and stupid... Thinks back to when I was younger. OH! Shit. Yes I was.

      • It's nice to have somewhere where I can stop being a grown-up for a little bit and make some dumb jokes.

  • Increasingly getting the “I don’t give a single fuck” superpower.

    • My 'resolution' this year was to be ruder to people. I've spent my whole adult life feeling obliged to be chronically nice and polite at all times. It's definitely the right position to take generally but sometimes a little bit of rudeness is warranted. I don't have to let old people at the bus stop talk at me rather than with me; I can tell them to fuck off if they're being bigoted or obnoxious. I don't have to let the pharmacist condescend to me when I was right about my prescription being ready; I can say 'I told you so', no matter how childish it might be.

      The I-don't-give-a-fuck attitude has done wonders for my mental health

    • I've acquired this recently and it's made work a lot easier to deal with.

      I've realised nobody ever gets fired in the company I work in (and I would 100% take the severance package if offered redundancy). I've spent 8 years being a team player, giving extra hours for nothing, and becoming one of the most knowledgeable people in the world for our system, only to be given a middle finger of a raise after a 6month fight (in which I was told almost immediately they'd take care of me and I'd be happy with it.

      Well. Fuck them and their 7.5%.

      Ill take the minimal amount of extra cash but as far as I'm concerned that's SOME of my back pay for the efforts over the last 8 years. I am putting 10% effort into my job and 90% into finding a new one now (which will come with another 5% for a sideways move anyway).

      A few years ago I wouldn't be able to stop myself trying to please everyone even after all that, it's so refreshing being able to turn off that switch which says I should care about my job. All it took was nearly a decade of mistreatment before realising they didn't give a shit about me....

  • I was very surprised to find that I feel more calm, more balanced, more confident and true to myself, less worrisome and controlling, and just generally happier with every passing year.

    I've had a very sharp mind, but I must confess I've noticed it slowing a little in the last few years. One of the mysterious benefits of that is now it causes me to reflect for just an extra moment before I respond. That has opened up so many more lines of communication and understanding in my personal relationships.

    I didn't realize how much younger women would love older guys with some grey. I didn't realize how many women thought going unshaven and looking like a bag of shit (joking here but not)... was incredibly sexy.

    I got a lot of experience seeing relationships all around me, and my own. And I came to discover some things about how we work inside. Majority of people never figure it out, but a lot of people do around 40. I found it very refreshing and surprising to see that within others, and it was a really cool light bulb going off for me when I got it.

    I was super surprised to find out that despite my thrashing, really mostly my life was a series of random events or unlikely confluences. That is to say, through experience and reflection, I discovered that we really have far less influence in our own lives than we think. This goes for the high points and the low points.

    I was really shocked actually to see how little emotional maturation there generally was as I watched my peers age alongside me. I know people who are in their 50s and 60s who do nothing except gossip in a sinister way about everybody and stir up shit. I am aware of a group of 50-year-old women wherein a marketing director got into a spat with 3 other women over a man at our social group, which ended with slashing tires. I really, really did not expect to see this kind of insanity at my age. And it still surprises me every time I see it, I must be naive at this point for giving people the benefit of the doubt.

    I'm very surprised how quickly life changed from being so bored you purposely extend a poop from 2 minutes to 20 while you read the shampoo bottle for the 50th time... To the point where there isn't a single second in our day where interaction isn't available! We wouldn't miss a phone call for the world in the '70s-90s even if it meant jumping off the garage roof in the middle of reshingling to answer in time. I'm surprised at how bored I feel with more media to consume than ever before.

  • You realize how some people never grow up and some people never mature. I see these as two separate entities. Having an inner child is one thing, but being completely disrespectful to others like a 5 y/o as a grown person is something else entirely

  • How much shit I've had wrong with me this entire time that I didn't realize was happening because it wasn't as bad and I was young

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