What is or was your "scary age"?

[girlinterrupted]

You know,the age when back when you were in your teens/early twenties that seemed lifetimes away but that was your definition of when someone was a proper grown up. When you looked at people of that age they all seemed to know what they were doing,they had their life in order. Suddenly (and it does seem sudden doesn`t it) you find yourself approaching that age and realising you have nothing sorted,you`re making it all up as you go along and to make matters worse you were conned because apparently all those so-called grown ups were doing the same all along!
For me I expected to be freaked out a bit by turning 30,when in actuality I loved it! 35 wasn`t so great,not because it`s my "scary age" as such but because it was the fast track towards it....40. I`m almost 36 now and to me that has stopped being a number in it`s own right and translates purely as "4 years off forty".
What`s your "scary" age,or have you already passed it? Was it as bad as you thought,or maybe it was liberating? Did you get past one and then start dreading a different number?

[Phool]

I don't know can't say I have one. I've always been quite 'mature' I guess so being older never really bothered me. I'm 37, soon to be 38 so yes the big 40 is looming but apart from passing my driving test and getting a new job, I can't say there is a lot I want to do beforehand. Turning 30 was comforting because people my own age group were maturing and i felt i could relate to them more, but my 30s in general have been pretty bad in mental health terms and i'm looking forward to , hopefully, a calmer 40s.

[LittleMissMouse]

30.

Turning 30 was awful, from about 27 onwards I knew that I was in the twilight of my youth and hastily constructed a list of things to do before I'm 30 - most of which I still haven't done. I will eternally regret losing most of my 20s to not being confident, being too shy, too worried about what other people think, worrying about everything, not having enough self belief to do stuff, the list goes on.

[Muse]

I always thought 40 would be my scary age, but actually when it arrived it didn't bother me at all (apart from the fact that that's when my health really started to go downhill)
Now I have 50 looming...I'm not looking forward to that.

[GhostOnMagneticTape]

40 really does bother me..... I'm now 37.

When I turned 30, it really didn't bother me though.

I've been using SAUK (the old bboy forum and before) on and off since I was 25.... now that's scary!

[i_like_mittens]

I used to fear 20 when I was a teenager. I remember me and a friend calling it "the crazy age / the age of the crazies", "once you've passed it, you're old and will just keep sinking into old age from then on". It was ridiculous... I probably feel younger now than I did in my early 20's.

I hate getting older full stop though, so every birthday scares me... any big number change, 20, 30, 40 (...), they're all scary and all involve a set of new things society says you should have accomplished by then... and it's not happening for me. I don't really want the 'normal' conventional life anyway, but seeing everyone move forward while I'm stuck, unable to function and do what I want with my life is difficult.

[Muse]

Originally Posted by Charlotte87

Muse - Sorry to hear about your health. I have noticed more aches and pains since late 30's. I have 3 slipped discs which cause me bother sometimes, and a knee that needs an operation - I sound old now!!!
I am glad that there are 'older ones' on here, apart from me.

Thank you Charlotte Apart from SA and the related stuff that goes with it, my ailments are fairly minor, so I'm not doing too badly Sorry to hear about your discs and knee. Those sound painful

[GhostOnMagneticTape]

Originally Posted by Rufus

I never noticed passing 30 as you are much the same as in your twenties but passing 40 seemed much different to me.I have even started to have memory loss and become much more nostalgic for kids TV programs from the 70's. I also have a bad back and aching leg joints if I walk too far now.

My memory loss has already started.

[Grogoch]

I never really expected to have stuff figured out at a certain age (except maybe when I was a kid, and adulthood seemed distant enough that I never thought i'd really get there, but if I ever did, it was so far in the future that I reckoned I had whole expanses of time to plan it so everything would be ingenious and perfect.) I've pretty much accepted that I move through life a bit slower than a lot of people. I took some long ass route, but that's cool, the long ass route is interesting.

I think my scary age will be the age at which witnessing other people's mortality too often makes me sad and reminds of the fragility of my own health.. (does that make sense?)

[Omar Little]

^^I am taking the long ass route too, in life and everything. What you said does make sense, when you get to the age where all your friends are getting hip replacements for christmas. Does that age seem as far away to you as adulthood did to you as a child?

My scary age was 21, for some mentally defective reason I felt like I had missed the boat on everything when I got to that age, I felt like I was too old to get an education, was too old to go travelling etc. What a silly fool I was. 30 came and went unnoticed.

[Blade]

40 ! i remember as a teenager early 20s thinking , i dont want to reach 40 , then i did and its all downhill from there , its horible ticking things off the list you cant do anymore

[Grogoch]

Originally Posted by Jake Bullet

Does that age seem as far away to you as adulthood did to you as a child?

Hey Jake, fellow traveller of the long ass route . hmm no, adulthood always seemed unreal. I knew I was supposed to be heading that way because people cleverer than me told me so, but it was too impossibly far away to fathom. But I can fathom the Christmas hip replacements :/ Uh oh!

Gah, maybe because you missed out on stuff you wanted to do at 21, it means you can reclaim that age and be 21 all over again!

[Omar Little]

Originally Posted by Grogoch

Hey Jake, fellow traveller of the long ass route . hmm no, adulthood always seemed unreal. I knew I was supposed to be heading that way because people cleverer than me told me so, but it was too impossibly far away to fathom. But I can fathom the Christmas hip replacements :/ Uh oh!

Gah, maybe because you missed out on stuff you wanted to do at 21, it means you can reclaim that age and be 21 all over again!

hey hey
aww i can't fathom hip replacements just yet.

it's not that i really wanted to do those things, i just felt that if i did decide i wanted those things then it was too late.
although i did actually go travelling around that time (a very short trip though, it was too anxiety provoking, i had to come home, and i had next to no money in my pocket) and i felt too old to be doing it, i felt like it was something 18 year olds did and at 21 i would look foolish. so damn crazy, i don't know where that mental block came from.

[Mr. Nobody]

I think my scary age will be about 2 or 3 minutes before I die,..

I'm bricking it already!!

[lig]

My problems started when i was 19 and at that time i never really thought about being old,im 36 now and still age doesnt worry me atall,only thing that bothers me is my anxiety lol thats enough to worry about without frettign about my age,i guess since becoming sin gle last year only thing i worry about is living the rest of my life alone...but hopefully that wont happen...for any of us

[diplodocus]

Originally Posted by girlinterrupted

For me I expected to be freaked out a bit by turning 30,when in actuality I loved it! 35 wasn`t so great,not because it`s my "scary age" as such but because it was the fast track towards it....40. I`m almost 36 now and to me that has stopped being a number in it`s own right and translates purely as "4 years off forty".

Pretty much the same. Was not looking forward to 30 but it came and went with no problem. Coming up to my 37th soon and I don't like the thought of 40 one little bit. The thought of being supposedly well past my physical prime doesn't appeal but I just look at the athletes who are still competing in their 30's and even into their 40's and I get inspired.

[GhostOnMagneticTape]

^ There's something more dread worthy about reaching 40 for some reason, 3 years away from it and I'm jobless, single and stuck! Seems like there are a few of us on here not far from 40!

Damn this irrational contentment and procrastination.

[diplodocus]

Originally Posted by nineofswords

30 was,simply as I figured all my peers would have all their lives sorted by then.

I remember thinking I'd have my first million by 30....

Originally Posted by nineofswords

if its any consolation I think you are quite youthful ,I always thought you were in your 20's mate.

well I'm pretty immature and in serious denial but thanks nonetheless

[Emski]

The age I am now 20, if anyone asks im always going to be 19.

[zx123]

As roxie hart says in Chicago 'I'm older than I ever intended to be',
I remember being about 20 and looking at people who were about 29 or 30 and thinking I can't imagine being that age, but I past that age quite a while ago now.

[Eklipse]

My scary age is "40". I'm not that far off and celebrated my 30 something birthday last week. I remember when my dad celebrated his 40th!!!! How quick time's just gone.

[well_guy]

The age where I am wheelchair bound, eating out of a straw and wearing man dippers.

Yup just push me off a cliff when i reach that stage haha.

[DarenA37]

My scary age is "40"

I've been agoraphobic from the age of 16yo and I'm still working on getting my life back now and I've not even got any qualifications and never had a job apart from a paper round that got bigger then me when I was 15yo

[Phool]

Originally Posted by well_guy

The age where I am wheelchair bound, eating out of a straw and wearing man dippers.

Yup just push me off a cliff when i reach that stage haha.

+1 except change to lady nappies.

[Ajax Amsterdam]

My first 'scary age' was 14. My mum and Dad had friends over the road who had twins older than me.They were 14, and I remember being in awe of them. They seemed so much older and all grown up. I wondered what I'd be like at 14. When 14 came, it was just like any other day. I never felt any different.

I think my next scary age was 37. This was because it would be my birthday in the November of 1999 and the year 2000 would be just weeks away. When I was a kid I'd wonder what the year 2000 would be like. I thought we'd all have flying cars and it would all feel like being in Star Trek or something. So 37 seemed like some distant point in time that was so far away I thought I'd never reach it. Thirty-seven came and went, and it felt like any other day. I'd longsince realised that I never felt any different when another year passed by.

I don't have a scary age now. They just seem like numbers that blur into each other. I don't care much for numbers.

[iTz0kt0Bu]

Probably 40, i dont wanna age quickly. And older ppl dont seem to care about fashion as much as young ppl, i wouldnt like to dress like most older ppl i see on the streets.
Im only 17 though, but idk why some of my m8's wanna grow up. 20's is a cool age tthough as u have independence but can still kind of be like a teen in apperance and some other stuff.

[humourlessness]

Probably 65. But once I got to 70 I realised there were lots of people my age. Then when I turned 80. I started to worry a lot. 90 was a real milestone I guess. I'm not looking forward to turning 96 next month I can tell you.

[piesJoy]

I try not to think about it. It is just a number after all......

[The Pearl Fisher]

My next scary age will be 50

[Only_human]

My personal scary age (without thinking about other influences) is 50. I do not view people in their 30's or 40's as old and never have done even as a teen so that doesn't really worry me but i've noticed people in their 50's tend to reflect more and analyse the meaning of life more, what happens after death and there is more emphasis on health when i've heard them in conversations. Death and what happens after you die terrifies me so in that sense i'd be quite worried if I do end up having these thoughts more around this age onwards.

But, if I think about my parents wishes, then around 27 is my scary age as my parents will no doubt about it expect me to be in a long term relationship by then so that added pressure of only having a few years to find someone compatible and stay with them for remaining years is scary as hell.