Being 32

[quote]to go ahead and make them anyways.

Oh dear. *anyway

[quote] you better get your shit together

No, please flush it down the toilet.

My age when I got sober. Much togetherizing of shit.

R3, aww, that's sweet

38 is the year I got it together. 33 is still quite young, honestly. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Life is anything but linear.

My 30s were my favorite decade. OP, you'd do yourself well to stop navel gazing and enjoy what's left of your youth. You are still young, comparatively speaking.

When I turned 30, quite frankly I was pissed. 2 years later, I still am.

My 30s were fun AF, OP.

I too, was sober during those years, and I loved it.

Just go with it. Don’t fight growing up. You don’t really feel like a real grown up until you hit your late 40s, anyhow.

Interesting question, OP, and one I’ve also wanted to ask lately. You sound pretty switched on and self-aware to me, and like you’re at an exciting promising crossroads, so probably don’t have anything major to worry about going forward. But then I’m younger and likely dumber than you, so what do I know?

If anything I feel the opposite. I’m turning 28 in a few months and I feel as if I haven’t done anywhere near the amount of stupid shit I could have, should have, or would liked to have done to make for an interesting life. My first quarter of existence has been boring, law-abiding, and very modest in terms of experience and accomplishment. It’s like I retired before I even started. I’m hoping to screw up courage and change that, somehow, though I’m terrified and unsure how, plus the perameters of our ‘New Normal’ will complicate the matter.

Then again, maybe I just have a very ancient soul. Living makes me tired, and I find it a chore to navigate sometimes. I get a lot of pleasure - too much, really - out of vicarious experience and living in my head. Anyone else like that?

Interesting question, OP, and one I’ve also wanted to ask lately. You sound pretty switched on and self-aware to me, and like you’re at an exciting promising crossroads, so probably don’t have anything major to worry about going forward. But then I’m younger and likely dumber than you, so what do I know?

If anything I feel the opposite. I’m turning 28 in a few months and I feel as if I haven’t done anywhere near the amount of stupid shit I could have, should have, or would liked to have done to make for an interesting life. My first quarter of existence has been boring, law-abiding, and very modest in terms of experience and accomplishment. It’s like I retired before I even started. I’m hoping to screw up courage and change that, somehow, though I’m terrified and unsure how, plus the perameters of our ‘New Normal’ will complicate the matter.

Then again, maybe I just have a very ancient soul. Living makes me tired, and I find it a chore to navigate sometimes. I get a lot of pleasure - too much, really - out of vicarious experience and living in my head. Anyone else like that?

32 is a great age. Still the right side of 30! By the time you get to 33 you sense the onset of 35, which seems like so much more of a deal than 30. Then with each year you’re aware that you’re inching toward 40 and that may bring a slight existential crisis with it. Until you pass 40 and realise to fuck with it!

I loved my 30’s. I’m fortunate in that I looked very young for my age. When I was 35 I looked about 25 and felt way more confident and comfortable in my own skin than I ever did in my 20’s. I also think my looks were at their peak, and was never short of attention from guys.

I was a bit depressed when I hit 40 simply because it felt old. Then, just prior to my 41st birthday I was diagnosed with advanced cancer. Now I will never be depressed about my age ever again. Each birthday will be a celebration because life isn’t owed to anyone. Enjoy life and don’t give a fuck about age. The only alternative to getting older is to not be here, so embrace life and live it well.

33 was where I started to grow up. I had moved far from my birthplace, my mother died, and I realized that if I wanted my own life it was all up to me to create it. 20 years later I’ve never looked back and I have indeed made the life I wanted.

I believe Todd Rundgren expressed it best when he sang

"...get your shit together and be a Real Man!"

OP is an idiot.

Start getting your shit together, the earlier you start putting yourself on a productive financial path the better.

For me my 30s have been great because I am on much sounder financial footing than I was in my 20s.

Yes, you absolutely can save your way to prosperity and early retirement, even with a so-so job.

I am living proof.

30s are the best

[quote]It's such a weird age. Old enough to not make stupid mistakes any more, yet still young enough to go ahead and make them anyways.

I'm not a grammar police person, I don't even know if what you wrote is incorrect. But I notice people in their 30s or younger always write things like "to not make stupid mistakes" instead of "not to make stupid mistakes." Again I don't know shit about grammar, but I think that's splitting an infinitive? Anyway it's almost an identifier on social media that he poster is younger.

I went through a huge identity crisis when I turned 30. A decade+ later, I don't even know what that was about. Like someone else above, I had a really nice time in my 30s because I looked ten years younger all the time and could do things 20-somethings do with a bit more knowledge, and I think late-20s thru the 30s is one of the best times in life.

It's your last year of being 'young'. From 33 on you're an adult. Get on it.

[quote]I'm not a grammar police person, I don't even know if what you wrote is incorrect.

Well, you just [italic]became[/italic] a "grammar police person," r18. Maybe in time, you'll become a grammar person.

R20 I hope so!! Will you pray to Grammerly for me? I always loved your English class Miss DuBois.

The thirties is the hangover of the twenties.

God, you all sound so old. I hope I never turn 30.

R9/R10, OP here. I made more than a few fuckups, including with the law, but nothing that couldn't be undone. I also developed a drinking habit that took me a decade to fix, and now I drink normally. Your mental health is your greatest asset in life, I've come to learn. If you let that deteriorate, and you reach a place of darkness and hopelessness that you feel you can't get out of, you will become suicidal. The key is not to let yourself get so far gone. You wouldn't let yourself gain 100 lbs (maybe 50). So don't let yourself become deeply, profoundly anxious or depressed. Talk to a psychiatrist and/or psychotherapist. If you need to get on medications for a while, then so be it.

I've actually had a lot of negative experiences and even some traumatic and tragic experiences, some of which would make most people think I'm insane or at least deeply flawed. I've overcome those flaws though. Now I'm doing things I NEVER thought I would. get the courage to do, like write a book (working on two), start a business (started one officially, and another soon) and applying law school next year.

It's insane how fast things can "pivot".... but it seems we have to do the work to set ourselves up for great things to happen.

My body was its best from about 30 to 38. It was my late 20s when I finally started changing from a twink to a man, and my 30s were the happiest I've ever been with my body. I had a lot of great sex during that time, too. Twinks coming on to me like I was a daddy, and studly men wanting to hook up like a buddy. 50ish and older men treating me like I was still a young hot thing.

[quote]God, you all sound so old. I hope I never turn 30.

We hope so too!

I’ve noticed that many artists & performers tend to attempt suicide around age 33. Some of them succeed. It’s like a lesser, more niche 27 Club.

Does anyone really have their shit together? Really, what actually happens when this is attained? Does a beam of light come down? Rich people can be completely fucked up, as much as a poor person, relationships are they ever perfect? When is anyone ever perfect? Live your life, do the best you can, and when you are surrounded by the type of humans we have now and the society that we live in, doing the best and right thing is good. Good all the time.

I was still making stupid decisions well into my late 40s.

The year I turned 33 was terrible - nothing went right - and people are still talking about it.