Feeling Down all the Time

LegacyUser

I'm 16 and basically I've hit a really weird point in my life - I'm actually confident and happy. I was very shy when I was 13-15 and was only really myself around close friends, although as years passed I got less shy. I was also very sheltered from peer pressure etc. as I was in a small group of friends that weren't into what the majority would be doing. I never drank, had a girlfriend(or did anything with a girl), went to discos etc.

Now I have a great girlfriend, I'm fairly popular amongst my peers and I'm a hell of a lot more confident than I once was, but the thing is, I regret my past immensly.

I keep looking back on when I was 13/14/15 and think that I've wasted some of the best years of my life. I wish I was like I am now when I was 13, but unfortunately I wasn't and I keep thinking I've missed out on a lot because of that. Like I never did anything crazy and fun when I was young. I drink occasionally now but my peers are all 'mature' about it now, they're like "Oh when I was younger I drank so much, it was so stupid - but so much fun". I never got to experience that "fun", maybe I wouldn't have liked it, going to discos every week and getting drunk etc, but I never got a chance to try it because of my social situation...

I think my problem is I was never subjected to peer pressure, which might seem strange, but in a way I just feel like I wasn't normal and not having as good a time as I should have been having back then. Even my girlfriend, who seems pretty innocent and is mature about things had some crazy times with drinking, sneaking out etc. when she was 13/14. Annoyingly she won't lie to her parents now, not even to see me, because she's "beyond" that stage...

Does this make any sense at all? I am happy, but every so often I start to think about this and it upsets me.....

rick_fantastic

u r 16 yrs old. dont worry u will have plenty more time to get wasted / high / arrested / in trouble

most of the stories you hear from ur peers about their drinkin at 13 / 14 is all bullsh1t anyway.

believe me when i say life experiences only get better and better as you get older

Dave

Ah... I think you're analysing the situation waaay too much. The drinking years haven't even started for you yet, despite what your friends are saying. Just wait until you go to college (if you do) and you'll realise that you were worrying about nothing. Don't be in such a hurry to grow up, life will wait for you, and soon enough you'll wish you were back in your younger years doing nothing like you were.

the_syco

"The time is now...!"

Dude, you can't change the past, but you are living the present. Put it this way, are you now in life where you wanted to be all those years ago? Yes? Then those years weren't a waste, as everyone has to start somewhere. Unless you're born with a silver spoon in your mouth, and a girl at your side, there'll be a time when you have nought, and a time when you get what you want.

As for "wasting" the time of your life, when you look back, 16-18 will be the "time of your life".