The happiest days of your life depend from person to person
It is commonly said that your teen years or school days are the happiest times of your life. "Sweet sixteen" is often referred to. I see this attitude as extremely presumptuous, as other people's values are being imposed on yourself.
Everybody's lives are different. What are happiest times in one person's life maybe not be in another person's life. The happiest times of your life are the ones which are the happiest for you, and the ones in which you feel self-contentment. That applies whether it is in your teens, your schooldays, your 20's, your 30's, your 40's, your 50's, your 60's, your 70's, your 80's, your 90's, or whatever age you have felt the most content. If you won the lottery when you were 35 years old, would you say your teen years were the happiest years of your life then? If you found true love in your 40's and hated school, are those years the happiest in your life?
It is also commonly said by people that when in their late 20's or 30's or 40's, they wish they could go back to being at Secondary School or 16, 17, and that "I wish I knew then what I know now". Why? No-one takes you seriously at that age anyway. I don't wish I was back at Secondary School or 16 or 17 again, with what I know now. If I could, everyone would have thought I was a know-all.
I have also noticed that when someone at 16 or 17 mentions views on subjects, they are told by adults that they don't know what they are talking about, or that they haven't experienced life to know. Yet when you are 22 or 23, and express them, you are taken more seriously. If at 16 or 17 you mention you have depression, you can be told that you shouldn't be depressed, because at that age, you shouldn't even know what it means.
At 22 or 23, you would be taken more seriously. So are your school years or being 16 or 17 such a golden age? At 16 or 17, unemployment benefits are limited. Your employment rights are lower. You can't drink legally, you can't drive legally, until 17. Some golden age.
I'll tell you what, if I live to be 90 or a 100, and providing no major disaster occurs, or if I keep my mental faculties and speech, I will then be able to tell you what were the happiest years of my life.
Everybody's lives are different. What are happiest times in one person's life maybe not be in another person's life. The happiest times of your life are the ones which are the happiest for you, and the ones in which you feel self-contentment. That applies whether it is in your teens, your schooldays, your 20's, your 30's, your 40's, your 50's, your 60's, your 70's, your 80's, your 90's, or whatever age you have felt the most content. If you won the lottery when you were 35 years old, would you say your teen years were the happiest years of your life then? If you found true love in your 40's and hated school, are those years the happiest in your life?
It is also commonly said by people that when in their late 20's or 30's or 40's, they wish they could go back to being at Secondary School or 16, 17, and that "I wish I knew then what I know now". Why? No-one takes you seriously at that age anyway. I don't wish I was back at Secondary School or 16 or 17 again, with what I know now. If I could, everyone would have thought I was a know-all.
I have also noticed that when someone at 16 or 17 mentions views on subjects, they are told by adults that they don't know what they are talking about, or that they haven't experienced life to know. Yet when you are 22 or 23, and express them, you are taken more seriously. If at 16 or 17 you mention you have depression, you can be told that you shouldn't be depressed, because at that age, you shouldn't even know what it means.
At 22 or 23, you would be taken more seriously. So are your school years or being 16 or 17 such a golden age? At 16 or 17, unemployment benefits are limited. Your employment rights are lower. You can't drink legally, you can't drive legally, until 17. Some golden age.
I'll tell you what, if I live to be 90 or a 100, and providing no major disaster occurs, or if I keep my mental faculties and speech, I will then be able to tell you what were the happiest years of my life.
posted by Kaspieman at
12:27:00 am
1 Comments:
Actually, by the time a 16-17 year old has complained about their depression for the first time, they will have had it for at least 5-10 years. At least the clinical kind. It will not suddenly show up unless something really horrible has happened. (And then we call it post-traumatic stress disorder).
And also, it's not what you're talking about (the content): it's why and how you're talking about it, and how the person is listening.
For me, the last two years have been happy. I would not yet say if they were the happiest of my life.
Didn't you write something about this subject before? Or something very similar?
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