Why, back in my day...

[Liah]

...I remember thinking when I was a teenager that I would've LOVED to be older, like 20+. My reasoning was that I would get to do *cool* things that adults like, clubbing, staying out late without having to answer to parents, drink, blah blah blah. Not to say that there aren't youngins' today who won't do that stuff anyway, but I didn't really as a teen.

Anyway, I was wondering how many older members here (and I'm not even sure how to define *older* - I guess maybe 18+? Up to you guys) ever felt when they were younger that they wanted to be *older*, and what were your expectations? Being an adult now, was your view back then accurate, or way off the mark? And to younger/teen ZUers - do you ever feel that you want to be *older* than you are? Why?

My view back then was that I would have so much more freedom to do what I want, buy what I want, be whatever I wanted to be. Now, I feel like I do have a lot more freedom, ya, but certainly don't have the means to buy whatever I want noooo waaaay XDD. I dreamed as a young Liah that it would be easy for me to pursue my dream of a job within the media, and though I have it now which I am very happy with, it wasn't without hard work, long years of study and struggles. Also - bills. I didn't include that when I was dreaming as a teen. Good Lord, I don't know how I could've missed that now XD. I also dreamed of falling in love and having some guy who would adore me and love me and be wonderful and sweet and kind and humble... And now that I have fallen in love, I realise making a list when I was younger didn't really help me any XD. Oh, I never thought I'd want to have children when I was younger. The thought of raising little Liahs didn't sit well with me. I can safely say now that that's changed now, in all honesty.

So, older peeps - did ya want to be older when you were younger? What expectations did you have of adulthood? Has it lived up to, or even exceeded, your expectations?

Younger people - do you ever wish that you were an adult? If so, what's your expectations? And even if you don't, do you have expectations anyway of what it'll be like?

Please satisfy the nosy pokingz of a Liahface person <3

[Rew]

Now this is my kind of thread! ZU geezers unite!

Well, being 27 years of age (actually, 27 and a half--today is my half-birthday! ), I'm one of the oldest active users on these boards. And I inhabited a quite different world from the one most teenagers do. Just for the sake of reference, I was born in 1980, went through elementary school from 1986 to 1992, graduated high school in 1999, college in 2003, and grad school in 2006.

In my day, there were no webforums or message boards (at least none that I knew of). Heck, I got my first email address at the end of 11th grade, and it was a family email address--and it was offline email! What is that, you ask? Simple, it was email without the internet. How is that possible, you ask? Good question! What we did back in those antique days was open up a program such as Juno, then click "Get Mail." Then our modem would dial up and then stay online long enough to download our emails, then log off with a DING!--and there were our emails, fresh and ready to be read. Back in a day when the only alternative was snail mail, this was revolutionary stuff to us!

Later, right after I graduated high school, my dad introduced me to the bold new phenomenon of instant messaging and chatrooms--oh my! It was even more immediate than email--actually talking to someone on a computer, in some cases people I didn't even know, and typing to them in immediate real-time. It was like talking on the phone except we were typing! Most kids nowadays are so used to this that they don't know what a novelty it was in my day.

Video game-wise, I was there for the advent of the ancient NES era. Of course, I never got around to playing my first Nintendo game until about 1989 or so (a good 3-4 years after it'd been released already). But my first, naturally, was Super Mario Bros. And it looked bewildering to my 8-year-old eyes! Funny story: Given the odd tileset that they used for the ground, I originally thought that most stages of Mario took place on a rooftop (the ground looks like roof shingles!) and that the pipes were green chimneys. So I grew up with Nintendo, got hooked on Mario 1, 2, and especially 3. I fell in love with Zelda, but Zelda II was more iffy with me. I really enjoyed renting Mega Man games too. I loved the Disney games too!

Then, around the time I started middle school, along came the Super NES. And back then, it really was super! That thing was state-of-the-art back in those days, and I remember just how big a deal it was. Super Mario World, A Link to the Past, Donkey Kong Country, Mega Man X, Super Metroid--back then, Nintendo took all the franchises that we'd fallen in love with and absolutely exploded them with even more awesomeness! That's why, to this day, I maintain that the Super NES era was the greatest Nintendo era ever, even more so than the Wii today.

I was already grown up and in college by the time I first got my hands on a N64. I was originally impressed with Super Mario 64, but then along came Ocarina of Time, and it was the most orgasmic VG experience I've ever had in my life! It's funny how a lot of teens nowadays sometimes mistake OoT as the original and call it Zelda 1 by accident--because for me, OoT was far from the beginning but rather the culmination of the entire Zelda series. All the games afterward, by contrast, simply play second-fiddle in comparison.

*returns to the present age*
So that's how times were back in my day. Honestly, I didn't really think a whole lot about the future back in those days, so I guess I'm not at all answering the OP in quite the way she laid out! But it's fun to go down memory lane and reminisce. And for all you youngin's out there, just wait! One day you'll be approaching 30 yourselves and you'll be thinking about just how antiquated things were in your day too, even though they seem so novel and innovative now!

"The Wii? Yeah, I remember when that first came out. Motion sensor remote controling was such a big deal back then!"
"ZU? Oh yeah, I've been at ZU for years. In fact, I was there before they even had social groups and friend requests!"

[Hylie]

Originally Posted by Rew

Now this is my kind of thread!

I hear ya bro. Although my post is gonna be much less impressive. xP

When i was young, all I wanted was to be grown up (like my dad) and do stuff that grown-ups do. I used to put on smart clothes and steel a ton of his aftershave, put a few coins in my pocket to jingle them so as to act all grown up. I even stole my dads brief case one morning when he needed it. Lol.

So yea, I always wanted to be older. Now I wish I was younger again. xP

[Warp_Spark]

since im still on the younger side of this, ill say that ya, sometimes i do wish i was older. but for the majority of the time, im fine being the age that i am. less responsiblity, and its cheaper as well.

however, when i am older, ill try to look at it in the same light i look at things now. when im older, ill still try to be fine with the age i am. sure i will miss being younger, but ill have other things to do then think about "back in the day". things including my career, and hopefully a family.

[Liah]

Originally Posted by Rew Rew Rew

ZU geezers unite!

SOMEONE MAKE A SOCIAL GROUP! XDD

*is off to work and will reply to other posts soon* <3

[Eijiro]

It's always the case that we want to be older, and then when we actually get there we miss our youth... I'm only 18, so I'm still young I suppose, but recently I've felt like I've really had to adopt the lifestyle of an adult. I'm currently working a full-time and part-time job, juggling money and the responsibility of an adult, while still trying to enjoy the rest of my teens - doing stuff like clubbing, drinking with friends and partying. It's not as easy as I thought a few years ago, and most of the time I'm either too busy or too tired from work to go out and just have fun.

[Hombre de Mundo]

Originally Posted by Rew

Well, being 27 years of age (actually, 27 and a half--today is my half-birthday! ),

Congratulations REEEEWWWW!!!!


Ehum... I'm 19, so I barely make the bar on this one, I guess. No, I never wanted to be older. I was always perfectly happy with they way things were. The only thing I don't like about growing up is the responsibility. God, can't someone just do all the boring stuff for me? See, I'm a kid at heart, I really am. I want things to be fun and simple. And that's why I'm gonna be an awesome father when that time comes

[Daemonius]

Teen ZUer here, currently 15 years old and going to high school.

Would I like being an adult? No, just simply no: life gets harder with each step you take, and I already don't like high school. Sure, I'd have loads of money (compared to what I now get) to buy consoles and games, but I'd have less time to enjoy them.

I went to elementary at the age of 4, which was something I really liked: at the time I saw school as a challenge, even though I always got the highest grades whilst doing practically nothing. Perhaps that was what I liked about it: the simplicity. I had more than enough time to play videogames, which I started at age 2 or something (as far as I can remember), ah, the wonderful times I've had with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the Sega Megadrive we borrowed from my uncle.

Then I got my Gameboy Color, I think I got it for Christmas while I was 4 or 5. The first game for that I've actively played was Pokemon Red: defeating the league to much to be counted, catching them all over and over again, crying in my sleep because my game got erased AGAIN because it had fallen on the floor... The games I liked best on that console were LADX and OoS, I continued to actively play those even during the time I had a GBA and GCN.

Then, in 1997 on my 5th birthday, a miracle happened: I got a SNES! No other console has even had that much of an impact on my, nor do I think one ever will: I remember everything related to my first days of playing Super Mario World. I also played my friend's ALttP during that time, but I didn't like it that much yet: platformers were my way of life, and SMW and the DKC's were my objects of worship. Somewhere in 1998 how

Somewhere during 1999, I got a Playstation. It was the biggest mistake I ever made: the only games I liked on it were Megaman X4-6, Spyro 3 and Alundra. I prefered playing Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, OoT, MM, SM64 and MK64 on my friends N64, which is something I did often...

A little after my 10th birthday, I got myself a GCN and TWW LE... Ah, TWW and OoT really gave me one of the best summers I've ever had. Although later GCN games like Metroid Prime, Tales of Symphonia and others gave me more fun...

However, then came high school, I really disliked doing homework...I hated French (while I was somewhat good at it) and later loathed German (I also sucked at it). However, I still did all my homework and remained one of the best...that is until I discovered I can barely do anything at all related to school and still be promoted to the next class (barely, but still). I still ocasionally do some important school stuff, and at those times I realize that I've lost my touch...my so called "warrior's spirit": "What challenge? It's a bother, a waste of my freaking time!" Sometimes I wished I still was the nerdy student I once was...

*Present age*
Nothing special, I got myself all Nintendo console sans the N64, and played most important games.

Thinking back, I think I'd rather wish to be an adult: "I wish to look back upon this time and think I had it easy, because when looking back the past will always be better than the present..."

[Rew]

Is it just me, or is this graphic only too appropriate for this thread (or at least my post above)?

Originally Posted by Liah

SOMEONE MAKE A SOCIAL GROUP! XDD

*is off to work and will reply to other posts soon* <3

Consider it done!

Originally Posted by Daemonius

Teen ZUer here, currently 15 years old and going to high school.

Would I like being an adult? No, just simply no: life gets harder with each step you take, and I already don't like high school. Sure, I'd have loads of money (compared to what I now get) to buy consoles and games, but I'd have less time to enjoy them.

Thinking back, I think I'd rather wish to be an adult: "I wish to look back upon this time and think I had it easy, because when looking back the past will always be better than the present..."

You speak with much wisdom, my young lad! Yeah, when I was a kid, I always wanted to be a grown-up. Truth be told, except for when I was playing video games, I really didn't enjoy my childhood too much. Then in middle school, I always wanted to be a high schooler. Then in high school, I wanted to be a college student. When I got to college and found it wasn't all it was cracked up to be, I entered a pretty long period of depression.

Now, after grad school, what with my so far two-year long re-obsession with video games, it's like I've reverted back to my childhood ways of playing those games all the time (and now chatting about them online--which naturally I couldn't do in the '80s and early '90s ). In fact, I've "regressed" so much that I wonder if it's healthy. Most folks my age are either married or going to get married, starting on careers, striving toward home ownership, and a whole host of other crap that I honestly couldn't care less about. I'm 27 but still feel and act as if I'm 22 or younger.

[Galedeep]

I'm 20, so I guess I qualify as being part of the upper age group here.

But I oddly enough never really wanted to be older. I didn't want to stay young either, and certainly benefits like being able to stay out late were desirable when I was in high school, but for the most part I was, and still am, content just living day-to-day rather than looking into the future and hoping that it will somehow be better than the present.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that by the time I was sixteen I was pretty much doing whatever I wanted to, staying out as late as I wanted to, and other stuff without consequence. Which isn't to say that my parents didn't care, more that they didn't find out about what I was up to. I had to lie to them from time to time, but it was more underexaggerating the truth ("I only had one or two drinks" instead of the more true "I drank the better part of a bottle of rum").

At this point...I like the freedom of living away from home while I'm at university, setting my own boundaries and determining my own schedule, but it's pretty much the same way when I'm at home. There's some conditions to being home, but nothing I mind doing to the point where I wish to avoid being there.

[Zarah Warah]

When I was a kid, I couldn't wait to be all grown up and adult like and whatnots. The thought(s) of driving, having my own place, doing whatever the hell I wanted seemed like pure paradise.

Now that I am old enough (20 going on 21) to do all that stuff, it seems kinda...scary. Like, I can remember being 10 and bragging to my mom that in ten years I was going to be 20, and now that I am 20, it's like, Whoah, I'm 10 years away from 30 and 20 away from 40 .

What really hit me was this commercial for life insurance, and apparently, I'm elligible for it. I literally freaked out for about a week

[Duo]

Adulthood is no more liberating than childhood was. If anything, it's more restricting.

Granted, the ability to go more places and do more things is definitely a pleasant feeling, but the amount of other responsibilities and stress hardly makes it worth it. The best years of your life are the ones before first grade, when nothing at all matters. Everything after that goes downhill, not because of what you can't do (which isn't much), but the lack of things you can do, for various reasons.

And I can only imagine things will get worse after I get my degree. Only two or three years to do =D. But then again, maybe I'm wrong on that front. Getting my own place might turn my whole attitude around.


Edit: Just reread my post and it sounds really depressing. I'm not at all like that, I swear =P

[brokenjoker]

Well, um, at any age of mine, I always thought that I was older than I actually was. I don't know why, but regardless of my age, I did things that I wanted to. I don't know.. it's weird. Nowadays though, it's all catching up to me, and I wish I was younger when all that mattered were anime, manga, and video games. :]

[Adventurer]

Well I'm 19, and I don't think I ever wished I could be older. I mean there were times I wanted to drive and stuff, but I liked being the age I was. Now that I'm 19... pretty soon I won't be a teenager anymore... and I'll be REALLY sad!!!! I wish I could go back and be maybe 14 again. Most of my friends are younger than I am. I have friends from my grade, then those who are 2-3 years younger.

I'm also fresh out of high school, but I don't know what I want to do ... so I'm just working and hanging out with freinds. It's fun.

I don't plan on acting my age any time soon.

[Orici]

Originally Posted by Liah

Younger people - do you ever wish that you were an adult? If so, what's your expectations? And even if you don't, do you have expectations anyway of what it'll be like?

I dont want to be older.
I mean, I like who I am and dont really want to change.

[sea]

Take it from me: being old sucks. All it means is more responsibility, more stress, more physical discomfort, etc. There is more disposable income, generally, but that doesn't make up for any of it at all.

[Liah]

Okay, getting older definitely means more responsiblities, but in all honesty, I wouldn't change my life right now if I could. I enjoy being an adult. I don't miss high school, or even uni. I like earning money at an awesome paying job that I thoroughly enjoy. I enjoy being in love and working towards a future with my Brandon. I am not dissing my childhood or teen years - they've contributed to who I am today. But, those years for me were kinda hazy and unsure where I fit. I wasn't old enough to fit in with adults, but too old to be considered a child. So close to being legal to do lotsa stuffs, but *buzzer sound* access denied. I'm happy with where I am and look forward to growing older with my partner, having a family, traveling the world, experiencing new things. Sure, I'm older compared to lotsa people on ZU, but I've still got a ton to learn and a long life to live. I don't ever want to be a child/teen again, but I hold no resentment towards that time. I'm an adult, still learning, and looking forward to what the future brings (:

[Eternal Legend]

I'm currently 17 at the moment and I'm in my last year of senior school woohoo!

I personally wish that I was still young, because you have less responsibility and I was fascinated by the world because there were so many unanswered questions to things. Now that I'm older, everything seems to have a meaning behind it and the world is now becoming boring. Imagination was the biggest thing for me when I was younger, now it's reality and it sucks. You were always curious when you were little, and some of your friends and others around you change a lot, which can hurt.

Soon, I'm going to have to leave home for my own life soon and I know that it is going to be one huge step from my past and into my future. Having a full-time job will scare me and to find a partner and to raise a family of my own. I'm even scared of leaving school, because I don't want to face what is out there for me.

So yeah. Growing old fears me, but it's a path that everyone has to take and it's something that I have to take.

[Luke Groundwalker]

For me getting old is kind of a both good and bad thing.

I'm really, REALLY looking forward to getting out of my parent's house and starting a more adult social life without my overbearing parents involved at all. Basically getting old for me is to get out of their grasp which is essentially a good thing if you were in my shoes.

While at the same time, you got LOADS of responsibilities and I basically know what adults have to go through already for a while now. Matter of fact it makes me wish I wasn't one but you cannot stop it really. However I think overtime I've pretty much prepared, or at least tried to, to build the stamina to take care of such responsibilities when I'm out. Although knowing me since I'm so lax and lazy towards everything I wouldn't put really that much responsibilities on my shoulders unless I needed to.

[Holic]

I'm 16, so I obviously can't answer this question properly. I can discuss my attitude towards my impending maturity now, though.

I'm not going to lie- I do look foward to being a little older. I think it's justifiable, though.

I know that as I get older my responsibilities will multiply, and I'm sure as hell not looking foward to that. But I would really like to live with someone other than my parents. I know the advantages of living with them, obviously. I've been living on their money for 16 years. And they're not bad parents.

I just need to be able to do my own thing in my own house. I have to do a fair bit of sneaking around to do some of the things I enjoy, and it would be a lot easier to just live on my own, instead of