If You're Only 20-Something, Stop Bitching About Being Old

[methodwriter85]

    CollegeHumor put out this funny sketch that makes fun of the whole Millennial phenonmeon of 20-somethings who bitch about feeling old. I am SO guilty of this.

 

[media]

[media]

 

    The ones that really nailed it for me:

 

"Did you know that Eminem is 41 years old?"

 

"Blake Griffin is 25. I'm 26!"

 

"I read on Buzzfeed that if Bart Simpson were a human, he'd be 37 years old."

 

"Do you guys realize that we've been out of college almost as long as we were IN college?"

 

"When I smile now, I have like, lines."

 

"Kids born in 2000 are TEENAGERS now."

 

 

    Was this like something that has always been around, or is it just particular to my generation? Did 20-somethings in the 1970's bitch about the fact that Beach Blanket Bingo came out 15 years ago and that made them feel old?

 

 

 

 

[Daddydavek]

In the sixties it was don't trust anyone over 30 and then we all turned 30......

 

The good news is that before you know it, another milestone rolls by and pretty soon you are so busy with life that you don't have time to bitch.   Of course, then the kids grow up and you discover you somehow really did get old...

 

[Tom]

I find this topic to be a little confusing.  I just turned 45 a few days ago and I am still being told I need to grow up

 

Hugs,

 

   Tom

[Bill W]

I got a kick out of that first video.  Although I could identify with the older pair, I found the younger group confusing.  I never thought of myself as old when I was in my 20s.  Hell, even hitting 30 didn't bother me.  Actually, I don't think I considered myself old until I hit 50, although my kids always assured me I was old before that.  Just enjoy the years as they come, because they will pass by soon enough, and don't make yourself old before your time.  

[Y_B]

meh...musta skipped me...I pretty much know I'm a baby

 

I find that I like getting with guys in their late 20s pushing 30, so it's always made me feel pretty young in comparison...sometime in the last year or so i lost my interest in people younger...idk, something about the stuff college kids talk about nowadays just makes me just go  and everytime I see someone sporting another fraternity t-shirt I just wanna barf. I still get that hardon for the occasional 18-19 year old but yeah, I've pretty much moved on quite seamlessly...the other contributing factor is that I work in an industry where tenure is everything, so I get stepped on all the time for being a newb, even if I am da man at what I do. There is just something depressingly wrong with putting the early 20s on a pedestal....at least for me, cuz I dunno about most ppl but my life's getting better and better, it didn't plateau from school...oh and I'm one of those people who will definitely look my best in my 30s

Edited May 26, 2014 by Y_B

[Never Surrender]

I'm also another one incredibly guilty of this.

 

Im a 90's kid, I only just turned 20. My complaining about being old stems from my friends around me and those in my peer group at school, now I'm one of a minority who isn't married, having children, engaged, etc. It sets off feelings of terror that I will be forever alone, which clash beautifully with my feelings of terror at the prospect of committing to someone

 

I think its because everybody around is getting on with their life, and making 'adult' moves, whereas I'm just here melting plastic spatulas to saucepans and playing with ponies...

[Ieshwar]

But, we ARE old, well, older than the teens. I wish I was back to 18. I wish I was younger...

 

So yeah, I'm surely one of those mentioned in the video, which I don't think is showing the whole picture. It's like life is rushing so fast past that WTF? Everyone expects you to be all independent, grown up (have someone in your life, have a house, have kids) and I'm like how and when? And I don't think I want to be all grown up. I want to read, write, daydream, sleep, be carefree, be happy, be young.

 

So maybe, in the end, it's 'who you want to be, who you are inside' versus 'who you should be at your current age, who everyone is around you'. Like a kid stuck in an adult's body.

 

And btw, the whole celebrities being younger than me creeps me out. It's weird, it's true.

[davewri]

My home is paid for ( a nice one). My cars are paid for ( one nice, one old). My student loan is paid off. I have a good size bank account and no credit debt. I enjoy my job and feel like I accomplish something everyday. And I have a very compatible partner.  

As I am getting older I feel less need to bitch about anything, except foolish young people who don't yet have a clue.

[JamesSavik]

 

At least we're not f-ing idiots.

 

 

Thanks granny!

[Irritable1]

I think part of it may be that in the teens and twenties and thirties the externally imposed milestones are frequent... Graduations, jobs, housing, serious partners... In my 40s I feel like I can pretty much please myself, so although I'm graying alarmingly fast I don't have the feeling of keeping up or falling behind my age cohort.

[TetRefine]

As I am getting older I feel less need to bitch about anything, except foolish young people who don't yet have a clue.

 

Please oh wise sir, impart some of your glorious wisdom on my foolish young self. 

 

....

[JamesSavik]

Please oh wise sir, impart some of your glorious wisdom on my foolish young self. 

 

....

 

 

Enjoy it while it lasts.

 

You'll find out how fast you go from the hot twink that everybody wants to buy drinks for to the troll no one notices.

 

That distance is passed very quickly and its very hard to swallow.

[Daddydavek]

I think Matt just wants to learn how you get settled, out of debt, and own your own house by the time you are in your forties.....

[Former Member]

Enjoy it while it lasts.

 

You'll find out how fast you go from the hot twink that everybody wants to buy drinks for to the troll no one notices.

 

That distance is passed very quickly and its very hard to swallow.

Understanding your point, but... what a relief to be unnoticed, and just go about ones life! That's called

aging gracefully. With a few mid-life crises, of course, but you're freed from fashion, lots of social pressures,

and so much attachment. Which is all necessary, because in the end, it's "good-bye world, hello oblivion." 

[TetRefine]

Enjoy it while it lasts.

 

You'll find out how fast you go from the hot twink that everybody wants to buy drinks for to the troll no one notices.

 

That distance is passed very quickly and its very hard to swallow.

 

Good thing I'm not a twink. I'm gonna be a stud-muffin forever. I'll just go from a young stud to a daddy stud!

 

In all seriousness though, I hope that by the time my looks start to fade I'm still not one of those guys who goes to clubs every weekend and pervs on the barely legal guys. Its really quite pathetic to see the amount of old trolls that just sit in the corner of a packed club or bar and just creepily stare as you walk by. Nightlife is lots of fun now, but I have a feeling that once you get older it loses a lot of the appeal it had as a younger guy. So yeah, I'm gonna enjoy it while it lasts, and remember it fondly when it finally does end. 

 

I really do welcome advice from older people as they have a lot of wisdom and experience that I, as a 22 year old, don't. But when it comes off as condescending and authoritative like it did from that guy I quoted, I tend to just give the finger and walk away.

[Sasha Distan]

the kids make me feel old. some of my ex students can drink legally now (over here, where we can actually drink while we're teenagers). the other day one of my year 7's (11/12 yo) said i was probably like "40 or something" and the entire class shouted at him before i had a chance to. i'm 27.

[Thorn Wilde]

I don't feel old at all. I still gleefully look forward to every birthday, and long for the day they finally stop IDing me when I buy booze. (They're supposed to check you here if they think you look under 25, just to be safe, and I look younger than I am.) Most of the coolest people I know of are older than me. I have brothers in their 40s, and they're not old. 

 

I do look at people significantly younger than me and think they're very young, though. Used to be I thought anyone born in the 90s was just a kid. Then it became people born after '92, and then after '94. Now that kids born in '00 and '01 are teenagers I am forced to concede that even those born in the mid-90s are no longer children, but I don't like it. It still doesn't make me feel old, though. And I refuse to think of myself as an adult.

Edited May 27, 2014 by Thorn Wilde

[joann414]

Ageing hasn't really bothered me as far as getting older.  I'm just relishing being who I want to be and not worrying about what anyone says or thinks about me because it doesn't matter.  I'm comfortable with who I am, pretty much know what and when I want to say something and if it matters or is going to hurt someone.  But the most important thing is being old enough to know that I can learn from those younger and older than me.  I guess you would call me "middle aged". Maybe I should cringe, but I don't.  I'm still able to hold down a ten hour a day job and half day on Saturdays, go home and ride four wheelers to the back of the place and fish if I want.  Dwelling on my mortality is my least favorite thing to do.  I think of the day I'm living in and the ones around me that I love and are my family and friends.  Even if the video was in humor, it's so true.   My daughter is freaking because she is 30 and to me she's still a little girl.  

"jumps off soapbox"

[W_L]

I am stable, well off with a stable timeless profession and a job, hold a decent bank account, small home that should be paid off in my 30's along with my student loans, some farmland in china that is being developed into a strip mall (ugh, please bubble don't bust til i retire), and just... alone. Not sure what people think of 20's, but at mid 20's I feel existentially lonely and tired.

 

I was never the good looking guy nor super rich, nor talented, nor a brave crusader. In another time and place with some more moderate attitudes, my drive and sensible outlook might be appreciated more. Guys in their 20's aren't looking for stability and a rock to be by their side, at least none I've met. They want fun, engaging, overt charms, and lustful looks. An artistic 20's guy isn't into a 20's business guy with geekiness oozing out of his pores.

 

I might have stability, but it is hollow to me. Loneliness make stale all the triumphs of man.

Edited May 28, 2014 by W_L

[Y_B]

Matt....a twink....

[TetRefine]

I think Matt just wants to learn how you get settled, out of debt, and own your own house by the time you are in your forties.....

 

I'm still waiting for my long lost billionaire uncle to die....

[Kitt]

For the most part the only time I "feel old" is when I run into students I have taught riding to when they were pre-teens as they are registering their own little ones for riding lessons. 

[trackstar195]

These kinds of messages have always been a bit confusing to me.  As I'm sure we've all noticed, in this video, there is a massive equivocation of the concept of 'old' between the elderly folks and the younger group. I almost want to contend that they really aren't talking about the same thing at all, and that there are two, completely unrelated, discussions happening in the video.  But even if we give the video the benefit of the doubt and treat the two conversations as congruent, it still leaves us in a dubious position.  I think what the video neglects to touch on is that growing older, for 'young' people, can be a psychologically/philosophically arduous journey…perhaps even more turbulent than the current plight of those elderly folks.  

 

Additionally, as a side note, this observation about 'old' isn't unique.  I hear things like this all the time from self-righteous, sanctimonious people: 'how can you be complaining about hunger or pain when you're not living in South Sudan?!' (hyperbolized for emphasis).  Please. Maybe someone can enlighten me here, but I'm not sure why my pain or hunger ought to be any less just because someone else is suffering more.  It's not either/or. We can feel pain or hunger (or old, in this case) and simultaneously acknowledge those that are in more pain, or hungrier, or older.  The video seems to indicate that, unless you're on the threshold of old-aged death, you have no right to any sort of potentially meaningful self reflection. 

Edited May 30, 2014 by trackstar195

[Wynter]

I'm only 26 but I have to admit to feeling old once in a while. It seems like only yesterday that I was still studying and now I'm 5 years into my profession. It doesn't help that, as a teacher I'm working with young people who are all just beginning a journey that I feel like I've finished. I've made it past all of the fun youthful milestones and now it's just work and buying a buying a house, trying to stabilise my career. I long since gave up on hitting the clubs because as a teacher, it's too potentially embarrassing and dangerous in a town with only one real gay bar. So yeah, I feel old sometimes especially compared to friends in other careers whose lives are still less constrained than mine and who don't have to worry so much about how their public behaviour will be scrutinised. 

 

I think the point is that people struggle with transitions between different stages of life and that going from your teens to late 20s is quite a significant change. More so, I would suggest than moving from high school to university. 

[Palantir]

I tend to think that young people who complain about feeling old aren't really complaining about being old.Rather, they're complaining ( or commenting) about the very real changes they note as their life progresses.

Time after time in our lives we are confronted with differences and new situations which force us to rethink who we are and how we mesh with the world.

To be a tad pedantic, I think they're complaining about being 'older' rather than 'old'.