So for those of you who hit it, how do you cope with turning 30 years old?

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Oh dear god this thread again. I made this thread in 2014. Now I’m almost in my mid 30’s. WTF? I feel like I made this thread last year or something.

Where the hell does the time go? How am I already heading toward middle age? Before I know it I’ll have a thread here asking how to cope with turning 40. What is going on? My 20’s flew by before my eyes and now my early 30’s are almost over. I don’t feel any different than when I was like 18-20.

How do you stop time from marching on? This is ridiculous. We’re all so old now it’s absurd. On other videogame forums I realized the other day most users were teenagers and I’m now double the age of the teenagers on other forums i’m interacting with. It feels so strange because on the internet you wrongly assume everyone is close to your age.

God us 80’s kids are old now. Even you 90’s kids are out of style now. The fact that kids born in 2000 are now legal and over 18 disturbs me, I think of 2000’s kids as babies.

That's nothing. In the General TMNT section you occasionally see random threads from 2003 getting bumped up. At least this thread will never outlive its purpose since millions of people turn 30 years old or get close to it every single year.

Yes, I know how you feel. I was 14 when I joined IGN and felt so young there. Like a 9th grade student trying to hang out with 12th grade students in order to look cool.

Most forums seem to have average ages around 21 at best. This is one of the few places where I actually don't feel like I'm older than the average user since a lot of its active users are 30+.

I remember posting on this now defunct Portuguese wrestling forum when I was 15-17 and most users being around my age or 20-22 at best. There were a couple of users there older than 25 and they completely schooled 17-18 year old users during more serious arguments and discussions.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by newfan

Here's a thought for the middle aged, think of how many years you have left to work still, there, don't you feel younger

Not middle aged, but still no. lol Mom and I were talking the other day about the years going too fast and realized that it's probably only 15 years until the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) start sending me junk mail. (Though I think I've already gotten one or two in the past...)

Even though retirement age isn't for at least 26 more years, and more if they raise it again between now and then. But they're pretty quick to make you start feeling close to being "old."

Got one in the mail today about "senior living" but was glad to see it said "Isn't it time to start talking to your parents about..." lol

I don't really feel old in the least. I just feel like the time I am is going to get here way faster than I want. But... at least everyone on this planet are all in it together.

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I don’t feel any different than when I was like 18-20.

And in truth, you probably won't, not even at 40. I really think this may be the true source of "age is only a number." Unless a person makes bad life choices that ages them faster than the norm, or have led an usually hard life, you're likely to still feel young on the inside for a long time to come.

I still feel about 25 at 40. My mom in her 60s says she does too.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

And in truth, you probably won't, not even at 40. I really think this may be the true source of "age is only a number." Unless a person makes bad life choices that ages them faster than the norm, or have led an usually hard life, you're likely to still feel young on the inside for a long time to come.

Yeah, that sounds about right. The only thing that changes is the way other people and age groups look at you, as you get older. And a weird shifting balance of "things you can no longer get away with" as well as "things you can now get away with that you couldn't get away with before."

[Prowler]

I think the strangest sensation of them all is how when we're young we never imagine ourselves as being old. The first 18-19 years of our lives are our longest years, which makes being a child/teenager seem like an eternity. While going from 20 to 30 in comparison feels more like only 4 years went by. And you mature more slowly once you become an adult, so you don't really notice you're getting older until you're suddenly 25 and then next day you're suddenly one wee away from turning 30. It's like you didn't have enough time to digest the fact that you're no longer a kid or a young adult who's still considered a kid by people aged 30+.

Most of us imagine ourselves as being forever young and a lot of us probably are young people stuck inside 54 year old bodies.

[CyberCubed]

I remember when I was a teen in the late 90's, 30 year olds were expected to just come home and do their taxes, watch sports with their pipe and slippers, and then watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. And then play bingo or crossword puzzles with the wife every Thursday night. Tuesday is also "meatloaf" night where the lady would have meatloaf cooking in the oven. And then you went to sleep.

Back then any 30 year old who played videogames, talked about comics, or liked cartoons or anything to do with superheroes or "kids stuff" in general was considered, "a loser with no life who lives in their parents basement." Even Star Trek and Star Wars fans were heavily mocked if they were in their 30's and still liked it.

It's so weird how nerd culture has changed. Now not only is this all accepted for the 30+ and over crowd, not to mention the anime crowd which didn't exist much in the west at the time, but now fully grown adults are cosplaying at conventions and it's expected.

I feel like I grew up in the wrong timeline. Back then you were considered a nerd or loser if you did this stuff.

[newfan]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I remember when I was a teen in the late 90's, 30 year olds were expected to just come home and do their taxes, watch sports with their pipe and slippers, and then watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. And then play bingo or crossword puzzles with the wife every Thursday night. Tuesday is also "meatloaf" night where the lady would have meatloaf cooking in the oven. And then you went to sleep.

Back then any 30 year old who played videogames, talked about comics, or liked cartoons or anything to do with superheroes or "kids stuff" in general was considered, "a loser with no life who lives in their parents basement." Even Star Trek and Star Wars fans were heavily mocked if they were in their 30's and still liked it.

It's so weird how nerd culture has changed. Now not only is this all accepted for the 30+ and over crowd, not to mention the anime crowd which didn't exist much in the west at the time, but now fully grown adults are cosplaying at conventions and it's expected.

I feel like I grew up in the wrong timeline. Back then you were considered a nerd or loser if you did this stuff.

I think the 30 odd year olds I remember back then were a little different to the ones you knew. My mom watched Star Trek (and still would), as did my friend's dad and other adults I knew. (While Trek can have a nerd stigma maybe, I have never viewed it as being for kids) They didn't watch toons or play video games though, but then a number of adults I know now don't do that still (more so toons and comics), even if it has become more common.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I remember when I was a teen in the late 90's, 30 year olds were expected to just come home and do their taxes, watch sports with their pipe and slippers, and then watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. And then play bingo or crossword puzzles with the wife every Thursday night. Tuesday is also "meatloaf" night where the lady would have meatloaf cooking in the oven. And then you went to sleep.

Back then any 30 year old who played videogames, talked about comics, or liked cartoons or anything to do with superheroes or "kids stuff" in general was considered, "a loser with no life who lives in their parents basement." Even Star Trek and Star Wars fans were heavily mocked if they were in their 30's and still liked it.

It's so weird how nerd culture has changed. Now not only is this all accepted for the 30+ and over crowd, not to mention the anime crowd which didn't exist much in the west at the time, but now fully grown adults are cosplaying at conventions and it's expected.

I feel like I grew up in the wrong timeline. Back then you were considered a nerd or loser if you did this stuff.

Bingo? BINGO?! ...maybe this is a regional thing and bingo is associated with 30 year olds in the United States, but that's an old man's game here alongside domino. . Well, domino is also a kids game as well, but it's like a game you stop playing at the age of 10 and then only return to it when you're 65+

I do agree with you how strange it is that we're at a point where 30-40 year olds share a lot of the same interests as high schoolers. I remember reading somewhere that people who are under 21 years old these days are more open to older stuff, sharing stuff with their parents and spending time with them as well, while my generation when we were kids thought our parents were old-fashioned and boring and hated everything that was fun and cool.

But seriously, I'm not old. I was born in 1990, and yet NO teacher of mine back 1996-2008 was into video games, wrestling, anime/manga, cartoons like TMNT, etc. Not even the younger ones. But keep in mind that a 27 year old teacher in 1998 was someone born in 1971 who was already 17-18 when the TMNT fad fully kicked off and anime overall hadn't become big in the West at the time yet. As for videogames, at most they might have grown up with the Atari or the ZX Spectrum or MAYBE played a bit on the NES but then stopped caring about games.

Most of my teachers were middle aged women around my mother's age(she was also a teacher) who thought video games were childish overpriced toys and also didn't care about any of the cartoons/anime kids watched and also found wrestling a bad influence and comic books as things illiterate people read. And ofc, metal music and rap music were "bad" for kids as well. And the younger female teachers also didn't care about games, anime/manga, wrestling, metal music, etc. and viewed them as things for men and kids.

So to me the idea of a teenager nowadays attending school and his 40 year old teacher being a guy who's into TMNT, wrestling, 80s metal or 90s hip-hop, etc. is pretty strange to me. Or worse, a 28 year old teacher being a huge fan of One Piece and a Nintendo 3DS and Switch owner.

All of this makes me wonder if there's even gonna be any significant clash between different generation anymore in the next few decades.

[CyberCubed]

It's because people our age are now teachers in school. The fact that you can have a 30 year old teacher in High School now who plays Pokemon is mind blowing. When I was a kid if a teacher played Pokemon it would be odd or weird as hell.

It feels like our generation was the first generation to really remain kids at heart even as adults. Nobody moves on from cartoons, comics, videogames, anime, etc. anymore. It wasn't like this when I was a kid, certainly not in the 90's or early/mid 2000's.

[Leo656]

When I was a high school sophomore I had a Language Arts teacher who was 26 years old and a devoted Metallica fan. Then my Senior year I had a Transportation Technology teacher who was about 25, first year teacher, also quite the metalhead. And another was a Bio teacher who I used to hang out in the gym with, 26 years old and, again, obsessive Metallica fan.

You're slipping, Cubed. I know NJ is more awesome than everywhere else but I refuse to believe that these are isolated incidents.

[IndigoErth]

A lot of those things also last a longer these days though, too.

My parent's generation may have fond memories of Howdy Doody and other things they enjoyed as kids or teens, but it's not like those ever got a reboot or a more mature version. Or blockbuster films. When they ended, they ended.

Some of the comics are probably a different matter though. Bet you anything there are probably seniors out there who have been lifelong Superman and/or Batman fans. Whether they express it in the same way or as openly or interact with online fan communities, however, is another matter.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Leo656

When I was a high school sophomore I had a Language Arts teacher who was 26 years old and a devoted Metallica fan.

I had a 7th grade teacher who was into U2 and wouldn't stop talking about how deep their music was every chance she got. As a kid it was entertaining, but reflecting on it with clearer understanding of people now, and.... -yeesh-

I'd take the Metallica teacher anyday.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

It's because people our age are now teachers in school. The fact that you can have a 30 year old teacher in High School now who plays Pokemon is mind blowing. When I was a kid if a teacher played Pokemon it would be odd or weird as hell.

It feels like our generation was the first generation to really remain kids at heart even as adults. Nobody moves on from cartoons, comics, videogames, anime, etc. anymore. It wasn't like this when I was a kid, certainly not in the 90's or early/mid 2000's.

I know, right? Usually when teachers commented on the current fads kids were into they came across as old people trying to understand what the current youth was into but still didn't get the point of it. That or they tried to see how stupid and violent it could be.

Originally Posted by Leo656

When I was a high school sophomore I had a Language Arts teacher who was 26 years old and a devoted Metallica fan. Then my Senior year I had a Transportation Technology teacher who was about 25, first year teacher, also quite the metalhead. And another was a Bio teacher who I used to hang out in the gym with, 26 years old and, again, obsessive Metallica fan.
You're slipping, Cubed. I know NJ is more awesome than everywhere else but I refuse to believe that these are isolated incidents.

Someone in their mid-late 20s liking Metallica in like 1998 isn't really that strange. I'd say a 25 year old becoming a HUGE Pokémon fan was A LOT less common. The first couple of Pokémon games might have gotten universal praise... but the whole marketing aspect of the Pokémon fad was heavily targeted at kids, so I doubt a lot of older teenagers or people in their 20s saw the appeal in that even if the games themselves were good. I notice that people born in the early-mid 80s tend to not care about Pokémon at all for PRECISELY such reasons. I was born in 1990, meaning I was in 3rd grade or so when the first Pokémon gen came out in Europe. All kids around my age at the time went crazy for Pokémon and it was definitely seen as a kids thing. I doubt 15 year olds at the time considered it "cool". Hell, once the 3rd gen came out and people of my generation were now entering their teens, they all lost interest in Pokémon all of a sudden and viewed it as not cool anymore and you were considered childish if you openly admitted to still liking Pokémon in 8th or 9th grade back in 2003-2005.

Also, I noticed you didn't mention the gender of said teachers. Maybe plastron will now come out of nowhere and accuse me of sexism and gatekeeping, but metal is a highly male dominated genre, even if a lot of chicks are into it as well. Granted Metallica are a pretty mainstream band and all, but those teachers of yours seem to have been big metalheads and not just Metallica fans. Also, let's remember that teaching is a female dominated profession, and most teachers people have in their lives are women. And women are less likely to be big metal, wrestling, anime/manga, action cartoons, video games, etc. fans. I remember in 2003 being asked by my English teacher who must have been 27 at best, what kind of music I liked and when I said "video game music" she grimaced. "VIDEO GAME MUSIC?! YUCK". And she once asked us what we liked to do on weekends and I said "playing GameCube" and she literally had no idea what that was. Remember, she was 27 years old, so definitely not an old person, and yet had no idea what a Nintendo GameCube was. Granted the GC was WAY less popular than the PS2, but still, for a person in their 20s not to have nay idea what a GameCube is in 2003... I think it's safe to say she didn't like video games at all. As if her reaction to me liking video game music wasn't enough proof already. Honestly, it wasn't until I started going online more often that I met more girls and women who were heavily into games, action cartoons such as TMNT, metal music, wrestling, etc. And still, online communities are quite male-dominated.

Originally Posted by IMJ

I had a 7th grade teacher who was into U2 and wouldn't stop talking about how deep their music was every chance she got. As a kid it was entertaining, but reflecting on it with clearer understanding of people now, and.... -yeesh-

I'd take the Metallica teacher anyday.

Yeah. U2 are so boring.

[IndigoErth]

One of my 5th grade teachers got into...Power Rangers. It wasn't while I was there, was at least a few years after me and after that series had taken off, of course, and after my time. But we live near the school and so knew younger neighbors who went there later on. Yeah, that one was a little odd. Not sure if he was actually into it himself or, since it was popular, he just used it a little, at least class decoration-wise, to get the kids engaged. Was a real nice guy, though, and enjoyed him as a teacher in my day...Just a tad kooky and maybe kid at heart. lol

Though I suppose he could have simply been the earlier version of today's adults who pick up a fandom, like the Turtles, after having become adults. Totally a normal thing now. But too bad he wasn't into the TMNT and used them as classroom decoration. Now that would have been cool.

[Prowler]

At this rate generational clashes will be less major in a few decades. I guess on one hand that's a good thing, but I also think generational clashes are healthy and natural. Societal, political and cultural changes throughout history have happened thanks to such clashes. For better or for worse, it's natural for humanity to evolve throughout the decades and new generations should question older ones. Imagine if throughout history younger generations had the same exact mentality as older ones and thus believed there was nothing to change in our society? I don't think we'd have evolved much.

[CyberCubed]

Can't believe all the young kids of today own cell phones. I remember when I was a kid I was so bored waiting between classes, or sitting in a doctor or dentist office, or in the car with my parents...with literally nothing to do. If iphones existed when I was a teen, I'd be either going on the internet or playing games, etc. Sure I had a Gameboy when I was younger but I didn't take it with me outside mostly.

It's weird. I often wonder if the teens of today get bullied and their cell phones stolen. To have something as expensive as a cell phone stolen in school must be crazy, when I was a teen we never had anything that expensive in our pockets in school...you knew it could always get lost or stolen. Hell, I didn't even carry a wallet to school, just like a few dollars in case I wanted to buy a snack.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Can't believe all the young kids of today own cell phones. I remember when I was a kid I was so bored waiting between classes, or sitting in a doctor or dentist office, or in the car with my parents...with literally nothing to do. If iphones existed when I was a teen, I'd be either going on the internet or playing games, etc. Sure I had a Gameboy when I was younger but I didn't take it with me outside mostly.

It's weird. I often wonder if the teens of today get bullied and their cell phones stolen. To have something as expensive as a cell phone stolen in school must be crazy, when I was a teen we never had anything that expensive in our pockets in school...you knew it could always get lost or stolen. Hell, I didn't even carry a wallet to school, just like a few dollars in case I wanted to buy a snack.

Didn't you ever bring your Game Boy along to play some Tetris at such times?

Yes, I was NEVER allowed by my mother to take Game Boys, video games, toys, comics, etc. to school because she feared I'd either lose them or someone would rob me. Which is understandable since she paid for those items. And I hated sharing my stuff anyways.

I got my first cellphone when I was 10 in 5th grade. my mother bought me a Nokia 3210. Never lost it or got it stolen or was in situation where I was close to losing it or getting it stolen.

I did know some kids in 2003-2005 who had very expensive cellphones, though. Which made me feel uncomfortable. Aren't their parents afraid that their kids will damage them or get it stolen?

[IndigoErth]

I wouldn't even have been allowed to own something pricey like a cell phone, even as a kid who'd have been sure to be careful with it. I got in trouble (around age 10 give or take) for even daring to mess with their camcorder. (One of those early basic family quality ones that took the big VHS tapes. They didn't even buy it, it was a Christmas gift from my aunt and uncle!)

Now everyone is fine to just let my 3-year-old nephew screw with their phones and watch videos and toss the damn things around. Time and advancing tech really makes people hypocrites...

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Can't believe all the young kids of today own cell phones. I remember when I was a kid I was so bored waiting between classes, or sitting in a doctor or dentist office, or in the car with my parents...with literally nothing to do. If iphones existed when I was a teen, I'd be either going on the internet or playing games, etc. Sure I had a Gameboy when I was younger but I didn't take it with me outside mostly.

It's weird. I often wonder if the teens of today get bullied and their cell phones stolen. To have something as expensive as a cell phone stolen in school must be crazy, when I was a teen we never had anything that expensive in our pockets in school...you knew it could always get lost or stolen. Hell, I didn't even carry a wallet to school, just like a few dollars in case I wanted to buy a snack.

Yup. Basically if you were born in the mid to late 70's then you were arguably part of the only generation to truly experience the technological crossover and adapt to the paradigm shift in societal behavior and norms.

A lot of people don't understand that about "us", and I think it gives us unique perspective on this.

My first cell phone was from this early, widely adopted cell phone company called Primeco. The phone was a "mini-brick" and it had an articulated earpiece that slid up to answer calls. It was setup for texting, but you had to pay extra per text and the feature made no sense to anyone. Their network had fuzzy and dropped calls all the time.

This was probably.... Spring '97 for me... I was 19 when I got that phone which was also about the time when they were becoming widely adopted as opposed to that guy who had that big block of a phone attached to the inside of his car from slightly earlier generations of mobile communication.

[Leo656]

Prowler: The first two were dudes, the Bio teacher was a chick. Also, sexy as f*ck.

After like her second year she married one of the other science teachers, after which she left teaching to go be a nurse because of all the shameless little perverts (like me) in that school who never stopped hitting on her.

Every time I read a news article about some 20-something female teacher getting arrested for f*cking a student - which seems to happen every single day nowadays - I think back to "Ms. B." and I'm like, "...That's not a crime, what the f*ck." I would'a gladly taken straight F's and gone to Summer School every year in exchange for that kind of "abuse", are you kidding me?

We were weight room buddies. I kinda think I could'a pulled it off if I really applied myself. That's my biggest high school regret. Not the 80 days per year I skipped or the lousy grades in Algebra and Geometry. I'm fine with all that. But I'm still pissed I never f*cked the Bio teacher.

I did catch a few glances down her shirt when she was doing dumbbell rows in a loose tank top with no bra, though. So I guess that's better than nothing. She had a bad habit of working out with no bra, so we all kinda figured she was giving us a free show on purpose. Nobody's that oblivious.

I also forgot my 6th grade Language Arts teacher who was also only 26 and sexy as f*ck. Or my Art Teacher from Grade 5-8. I could actually make a decent-sized list of the young, hot teachers I had back then.

I could'a gotten better grades, but y'know, for SOME reason I just had a tough time concentrating a lotta the time.

[newfan]

Apparently there is a lot of peer pressure for kids to have expensive phones, (teens I mean) It was wearing certain brand trainers (sneakers) when I was school.

Yup. Basically if you were born in the mid to late 70's then you were arguably part of the only generation to truly experience the technological crossover and adapt to the paradigm shift in societal behavior and norms.

I read recently that those born from the late 70s till the early 80s are now being called Xennials, described as those who lived a tech free childhood but were still young to catch it when it took off, not sure if that's an official thing though?