"These are the best years of your life"

[Laize]

So I know there are plenty of people on these forums who are young and still in high school.

That almost invariably means you'll hear the topic sentence. "These are the best years of your life."

Is there anyone out there who actually believes that tripe? It always seemed to me (And my own life experiences confirmed) that anyone who says that is simply saying "Those were the best years of MY life, so it naturally follows that everyone has the same experiences I had when I had them".

[Warlord Booty]

My uncle goes on trips almost everything month. New car every couple years, new truck alternative years. Huge house. Said he was picked on in school for being smart and geeky, now all those people work for him. He says these years were the worst years of his life. When I graduate, he says he'll hook me up with a real job. I can't wait!

[Deleted]

School sucked, college sucked and uni sucked.

Now i have a good job and have had for a while and i'm loving it.

[Laize]

My uncle goes on trips almost everything month. New car every couple years, new truck alternative years. Huge house. Said he was picked on in school for being smart and geeky, now all those people work for him. He says these years were the worst years of his life. When I graduate, he says he'll hook me up with a real job. I can't wait!

Your uncle's experience mimics my own. High school was atrocious for me. I don't have any employees, but I do work for myself and I do delight in seeing many of the people I went to school with slogging their way through adult life.

[Kalcheus]

The main impetus for the statement is typically "You don't have to work in a soul-crushing job for the next forty years yet so enjoy it while you can". There is some truth to the statement, but it generally requires you to have generous parents and stable social relationships to be true.

[MerinPally]

Uni is so far better than anything else.

[tratra]

After having 2 kids a wife, a successful carrier, 1 main house, 3 holiday houses and 2 cars i can say yes that phrase is true.

Since I graduated school and went into uni, i started having nightmares about paying my bills etc, when Ill have some time off etc. Till now I NEVER HAD TIME ON MY OWN!
I love my kids God bless them, I love my life and its state, but I can defenately say that yes school years were actually the ones that didn't have to care about anything. (bills, tax, family etc).

I wish now that I am a grown man and I know how life works, could have used the full potentials of being a student.

I believe that phrase and i say it to my kids every now and then.

[Laize]

The main impetus for the statement is typically "You don't have to work in a soul-crushing job for the next forty years yet so enjoy it while you can". There is some truth to the statement, but it generally requires you to have generous parents and stable social relationships to be true.

I've had the same group of friends since high school. Don't get much more stable than that.

As far as working a soul-crushing job for the rest of your life? That's your own damn fault... and easily avoidable.

Anyone stuck working a job they hate for 4 decades reminds me of that guy in Austin Powers who stood there screaming at the slow-moving steamroller for a good 60 seconds before it finally crushed him.

[Fus Ro Yay]

TBH i miss being 13-17 again.
growing up sucks

[Kalcheus]

I've had the same group of friends since high school. Don't get much more stable than that.

As far as working a soul-crushing job for the rest of your life? That's your own damn fault... and easily avoidable.

Anyone stuck working a job they hate for 4 decades reminds me of that guy in Austin Powers who stood there screaming at the slow-moving steamroller for a good 2 minutes before it finally crushed him.

When you get older, you'll learn that "soul-crushing" has nothing to do with hate or love.

[Laize]

When you get older, you'll learn that "soul-crushing" has nothing to do with hate or love.

I'm going to be 30 next year.

I'm self-employed and loving life far more than I ever did in high school.

[Kalcheus]

I'm going to be 30 next year.

I'm self-employed and loving life far more than I ever did in high school.

Again, when you're older.

EDIT: Also, when you're older, you'll learn that personal experience/anecdote does not necessarily apply to the general population.

[lakhesis]

It's a question of perspective.

Most people don't get to do a job they love. With a bit of forward thinking & some luck, you can reasonably hope to end up doing a job you don't mind.

There is very little of the potential for great opportunity that you thought you had back when you were in school. There's a higher likelihood of some degree of financial freedom, but you're more constrained in other ways then you ever were in school/college/university.

Someone at the school/college/university is also experiencing a whole rush of things for the first time. And trust me, all those experiences really are better while they're fresh & new.

So "best years of your life" as a generalisation is a bit questionable. But for a lot of people, they will be. That doesn't mean they're particularly good necessarily. It doesn't mean you'll appreciate the good elements at the time. But there are more tire repair salespeople, line workers & accountants than professional musicians.

With a bit of luck & foresight maybe you can be one of the happy, self employed, doing something they love sorta folk. But most people aren't.

[Laize]

Again, when you're older.

I'm on track to be able to retire when I'm 45 or 50. I have tons of free time and really no desire for kids of my own. Don't purport to tell me how my life will play out just because yours went a certain way.

EDIT: Also, when you're older, you'll learn that personal experience/anecdote does not necessarily apply to the general population.

Says the guy who thinks everyone's experience will mirror his when they get older.

[Valerean]

I wouldn't call them the best, but I'd absolutely call them the most fun. High school / college were a total blast: virtually no responsibility, an easy part-time job, doing awesome stuff with your friends. I still get a serious case of the melancholy when the fall semesters are starting.

[Warlord Booty]

I think the problem is a lot of us don't know what we want to do with our lives, but when we graduate high school, we either stay with school towards a degree we don't know we want, or join the work force in some low end job and struggle to get figure out what we want to do with our lives and lose our natural progressing window to achieve it. So many adults in my life have told me to find something I love to do and stick with it, that if you love your job, it's hardly work. I just... I can't say what I'd like going into next week or next year, how am I suppose to do that the rest of my life? After Gen-Eds, I hope I figure it out.

[Tarien]

Personally my college (high school in the US?) and University years (college to 'muricans) were awesome socially, and I either didn't have any responsibilities or I ignored them with little to no consequences. I drank, I partied, I fell in love, I got laid, sometimes all in one night. It's all new and intoxicating.

It's easy to see why people would call them the best years, but I think the better term would be "These are the free-est years of your life". Most people get older and end up with a lot of responsibilities (mortgage, bills, jobs they don't enjoy, children, etc) and they're tied down. They can't decide to go out at the drop of a hat, because kids, or because money, they don't have time to see friends every day because of work, and so on. We often gain wrinkles, grey hairs and weight too.

Late teens/early twenties you're at your most healthy, most attractive, with the least amount of responsibilities. You can literally do anything with your life, you have nothing tying you down.

None of this is set in stone however. I have friends who are having the best time of their life now and they're in their thirties. I know people for whom their late teens and early twenties were a mess. It's a generalisation, not a law of physics.

[Deleted]

I've had the same group of friends since high school. Don't get much more stable than that.

As far as working a soul-crushing job for the rest of your life? That's your own damn fault... and easily avoidable.

Anyone stuck working a job they hate for 4 decades reminds me of that guy in Austin Powers who stood there screaming at the slow-moving steamroller for a good 60 seconds before it finally crushed him.

As hilarious as that scene is every single time I watch it, not everyone is able to live their dream job. Sometimes you have to do what you *have* to do in order to support or provide for the ones you love. If you have a child you may decide it's time to give up your job as a stunt double because now it's not just your own life that matters any more.

Might not be the case for everyone but with 7 billion people in the world there are always going to be cases where someone simply can't live their life in the way they would've imagined. You can't just generalise people like that.

[Laize]

I wouldn't call them the best, but I'd absolutely call them the most fun. High school / college were a total blast: virtually no responsibility, an easy part-time job, doing awesome stuff with your friends. I still get a serious case of the melancholy when the fall semesters are starting.

You lack freedom when you're young.

The first time you move out on your own and there's no one telling you how to live your life or what you can eat for breakfast? That feeling when you realize that the only one you're answerable to for your own actions is ultimately yourself? It's amazing.

You can do whatever the fuck you want as long as you're willing to accept the consequences.

A life of freedom is far superior, to me, than a life of ease.

- - - Updated - - -

As hilarious as that scene is every single time I watch it, not everyone is able to live their dream job. Sometimes you have to do what you *have* to do in order to support or provide for the ones you love. If you have a child you may decide it's time to give up your job as a stunt double because now it's not just your own life that matters any more.

Might not be the case for everyone but with 7 billion people in the world there are always going to be cases where someone simply can't live their life in the way they would've imagined. You can't just generalise people like that.

Well if someone has kids before they're ready, they're hardly being responsible people.

I'm not generalizing either. I'm simply saying not everyone will see their younger years as the "best years of their lives".

[SatanClaus]

I loved my highschool years even though I was kicked out. 20's was amazing. Not so much my 30's