TakeyB0y2 said:
I just read this article on Cracked [http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reasons-you-dont-miss-your-20s-when-theyre-over/]. I'm currently in my very early 20s and I feel like everyone and everything is out to convince me that I'm wasting what are supposed to be the "best years of my life". When I read that Cracked article it just made me think about how rough the average person's 20s tend to be... So why is there so much hype about the 20s being the years you can party without a care, when really, it's more like the years you suddenly get a huge heaping pile of responsibility dumped on you all at once?
I feel like most people here are either in or past their 20s, so I gotta ask... How were/are your 20s? Did you/are you living the life that the media often makes people's 20s out to be?
Wickedly broad generalizations about an entire decade of your life are... um, wickedly broad.
I've passed my 20's and all I can say is that if you're rich and healthy chances are your 20's are going to rock pretty hard, if you're poor or sick chances are your 20's are going to suck pretty bad.
Coincidentally, just like every other damn decade of your life. There were awesome parts of my 20's and there were some fairly bad parts, which I suspect just about everyone who has made it to 30 will probably be able to say.
You could honestly probably be more accurate with an article describing life "before kids" and "after kids" because I know a lot of parents and every one will tell you that becoming a parent changed their life a Hell of a lot more than some arbitrary coming of age that happens between 29 and 31. Honestly the people I know who never had kids are living in their 30's, 40's and 50's pretty much like they did in their 20's and having the time of their life doing it. Our gay friends in their 50's just got back from some beer festival or another in Germany, straight couples we know in their late 40's are still partying hard "sans kids" - etc.
So... I'd just say your 20's are your 20's. People are living longer and healthier now, you might find that you feel much the same at 35 as you did at 25, just usually by 35 you have a bit more money and experience to go with whatever else life is throwing at you. Plus there is the fact that men don't even really mentally fully mature until they're 30. (Seriously, women achieve full brain maturity in their early 20's while we men have to wait until 30. Ain't life fascinating.)
http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Boys_Girls/
"Girls reach the inflection point just before age 11 years; boys do not reach the inflection point until just before age 15 years. A young woman reaches full maturity, in terms of brain development, between 21 and 22 years of age. A young man does not reach full maturity, in terms of brain development, until nearly 30 years of age."
So one might even say that in some sense, for men, life doesn't even really begin until you're 30. ;D