Upset over age

LegacyUser

Hello
I've felt so down about my age for a while now. I'm 27, not really old I know but I feel like I was 16 two minutes ago! I'm back at college and am friends with 19 and 20 year olds. I see how they behave and they are so fun and free spirited and I feel so sulky and serious and can remember being like them. It's not even at college, it's being out or shopping and I see younger women in lovely clothes and in groups giggling and I feel so out of the loop! To make things more complicated me and a 19 year at college have a thing between us but the age seems to get between us. I also get many jokes made about how much older I am, they are joking but it brings it home to me.
When I was 19 or 20 I wore dreadful clothes and didn't make any effort when I really should have. I wasted so much time on relationships that weren't going anywhere. I was so quiet and such a 'yes person'. I've learned so much through the past 10 years but I'd love to be 20 again knowing what I do now!
I just can't believe how quickly my life has gone. A friend wished me birthday and said I was in the dreaded late 20's now and I felt sick! I know it's no big deal, it happens everyone and I am glad to be alive and be lucky in life but time has just gone by so fast!

Big Bag of Chips

We all wish we could go back, knowing what we know now! Wasting time on relationships is not something I count.. by going through all those disasterous relationships that weren't going to go anywhere you learn what you want and don't want for the future.. and hey, you're not doing too bad if you're having a thing with a 19 year old!

"Age is but a number" - Corny but true. Do you have kids? A mortgage? Responsibilities that stop you from being giddy and silly? You're not ancient.. just 18/19/20 year old think you are. I was 19 in first year, and there was a "mature" student who was 24 I think... I that she was the oldest person in the world, other than my parents!

Go out and enjoy college, enjoy being a bit foolish - if you don't enjoy it, then don't stress it, you've just "matured"!

Try come up with some witty one liners (google them maybe!) when someone who's barely shaving slags you off for being old!

Life moves on for everyone, even them that are 19 and 20 now!!

PhysiologyRocks

27 is not old.

I have friends ranging in age from 18 to 46.

I know some people aged 19 who are more 'grannyish' than some in their thirties.

My grandmother is almost 80 and she is one of the most fun, entertaining people I know.

In the end of the day, short of extreme age (e.g. end-of-life and childhood), it really is just a number.

fungun

pretty common tbf. teenage years seemed to go fairly slowly, college was great...phd years even better. Now Ive blinked and im 35 with 2 kids.

Like WTF??? how did that happen?

leinsterrugby

chillax babe its all good luck. dont think about it. the examined life is not worth living.

Stevecw

Mary, im 30 now and feel exactly the same. I wish i was 20 again and knew then what I knew now. But I am 30 now still single, enjoying life with my mates. Its so much better than being tied down already with kids & a mortgage. Ughh not for me..and by sounds of it not for u anytime soon Mary either.

leinsterrugby

btw when you are like 40 and you like stay in contact with any of these people they will be 31/32..its common for people to be friends at this age...at this age yeah it does seem kinda big but not really your like at the same stage as them in life and everything u no what i mean? srsly laugh at the banter its no big deal. 27 is mature age if your a sports person not like an everyday living person.

Overheal

Its not a question of calendar age: What had you expected to do with your life that you haven't yet done? And what's stopping you from doing that?

fungun

also rather than moan about the missed twenties, remember that the next ten years will fly too and there will be times you are wishing you were 27 again....so for now just go out and enjoy being 27!

LegacyUser

Don't be stressing, you're only a young 'un yet! I'm 27 too (nearly 28) and I don't feel old at all! I guarantee when you're sixty you'll be looking back wishing you were 27! You're young, you (hopefully) have your health and you still have your whole life ahead of you.

Try not to get into a habit of feeling old, have you ever noticed that elderly people who are full of life always say that they don't let their age dictate how they behave?

In ten, and even twenty years time you'll still be relatively young. You have a few more years of experience behind you - this is a bonus. Why not use this experience to decide what you want your life to be, and then go enjoy it instead of worrying about what really is just a number.

leinsterrugby

well i think what makes the op feel old is that like all her friends are much younger which makes her appear older

tenchi-fan

I wouldn't worry too much that your classmates are younger. Take the slagging as a joke, everyone gets slagged about their age! That's why a lot of people dread the milestone birthdays.

As for being fashionable.. teenagers these days have had it easy growing up during the boom. I honestly feel a generation gap between myself and say a 22 year old even though there's only 6 years in the difference.

They won't be long crashing back down to earth when they finish college.

freakmagnet

I know exactly where you are coming from... i'm a little preoccupied with the passage of time. I figured out what it was... well, what it was for me... people who regret things, and feel they missed out in a part of their life when they are younger - they really feel the passing of time.. and yearn for it... because we find it hard to accept that its gone, we can't get it back, and we can't make things different..... and it wasn't supposed to be like that! We weren't supposed to be yearning for yesteryear, because we would have lived it, and enjoyed it.

deisemum

I'm 46 and in my case life is getting better as I get older. I much prefer my 40's than my 20's and 30's. There are a few things that I might think "oh if I had those years again I'd do things a bit differently" but then I think of what's happening in my life now and I wouldn't swap it.

A number of my friends went back to college in their 40's and were in classes with students who were half their age and they're having a great time.