Does anyone ever wish to be young again?

[doorbores]

I'm 36 now and I've lost a lot of special people.
My mum died when I was 14 with breast cancer and recently lost my grandma who was my second mum.
Everytime when it's coming up to autumn I get this feeling of excitement I got when I was younger ...all excited for Halloween and Christmas.
Il often sit and remember Saturday nights with my mum..gladiators ,blind date and then sundays hearing the ice cream van and taking the dog for a walk ..coming home and watching heartbeat ...dreading school the next day.
I just feel sad because all those nice things are just memories now.
It hits me my mum and gran are totally gone
Il never ever get them back and sometimes it's too much sadness to deal with
Not sure what the point of this thread is ..
Does anyone ever feel this way?

I do….all the time.

I would like to be about 20 years younger but with the lifestyle, income, experience and outlook on life I have now.

Yes, definitely.

My grandparents are dead now but I fortunately have my parents who are in good health. I can only imagine how much the loss of a patent would compound those feelings. I get more nostalgic the older I get and particularly in times of stress, I wish I could go back to a 'safe' moment from my past.

I sometimes look at the Instagrams of a couple of young women in their late tees and early twenties I’m acquainted with and feel a strange sort of stab of “something” difficult to describe. A bit of a yearning and nostalgia for their naivety and not knowing what lies ahead of them or how long they have to enjoy it. Little concept of limitations.

But I wouldn’t do my teens and early-mid twenties again for anything: I was mostly awkward, self conscious and poor. And I think most people are at those ages, tbh. My thirties have been epic - I’m confident, outgoing, I’m not afraid to speak up for myself, I know where I “fit” both in the world and in my own life, I’m wealthy enough to buy more or less whatever I want, and I’m super fucking hot because I look after myself and work out a lot, which I didn’t back then.

I'm sorry about your mum, and your grandma.

Mine is prosaic though; I'm happy as I am, but I'd like my early-20s knees back!

So sorry for your losses OP. Of course it'll make you miss the times you spent with your mum or nan.

I was bullied a lot at school so would have absolutely no desire to go back to that age. Nor did I have much of the life I wanted.

I only ever wish I had the tolerable looks I had at 19 or whatever (I'm 45 now) and have that face instead of my rough one, but knowing then what I know now.

I'm 53 and wouldn't be young again for all the tea in China! I would hate to be a teen/20 something again in the 2020's, finding my way through the mire that is adulthood with the bombardment of social media around to compare myself to or record all the times I mess up. Yes I would like to be as slim as I was then and to be able to get up without joints hurting but in general, even though I have a failed marriage and failed relationship behind me, no friends or social life (due to failed relationship!) I am much more content with my life than I was 30 years ago

I hated every minute of my teens and 20s. Utterly awful. I just wasn't suited to being young (too introverted). When I turned 40, something went ping in my brain and I suddenly felt happy and at peace. No one cares what I do anymore. No one asks what I'm going to do with my life, what I do at the weekends, etc. Bliss.

But I hate growing old. I hate losing my looks. And I'm dreading losing my mother. If I could feel the way I feel now, but have the body and energy of a 25-year-old, that would be great.

I think the yearning to slip back into a time and place with those we have loved and lost is an entirely understandable yearning that is different to simply wanting to be young again. I’d love to go back for a night and party with my beloved brother, my old mates, return to an easier and fairly carefree time when hope and idealism pulled me through darkness in a way they don’t now. I’d love to walk with my dad again. It’s been too long without him and I now miss him almost as long as I knew him in life. It’s strange. But to actually return to youth full stop? No way.

But that abstract longing does live in my heart. I’m 50. And I assume living with a low level, white noise sort of existential crisis is par for the course at my age. It sits there rather comfortably inside my being.
💐 for you, OP.

I wish I could like in that time again (even if not young) - because I genuinely feel my own youth was a time of such hope and the future seemed so bright for the world. For about the last 10 years things have been getting worse and worse and now the world seems so mired in bleakness. I feel lucky to have experienced a period in time where we all assumed life would get better and better.

I also wish I could secretly visit and observe every day time from my childhood. I'd love to watch a Christmas Day, or observe my childself and my Grandma cooking flapjack, or sit and quietly watch my Grandad while he drank his ritual cup of tea and listened to Radio 4 before anyone else got up. I'd love to watch a day of school, or see me getting ready for a Saturday night out, or sit with my younger brother and laugh over the silliest things like we did wen we were young.

I love the idea that time could be the 4th dimension and so, if true, that means those times and people are out there in the universe - happening concurrently. A bit like how Glasgow is still there even when you're in Nottingham. So, people in 1995 (for e.g) are still there even though you're in 2022. It's easier for me to think I am just seperated from lost ones by distance, rather than by existence.

I wouldn't like to be young right now in 2022 but I would love to turn the clock back to the 80s when I was in my 20s and do it all again. (Taking out the bits I shouldn't have done, of course)😀

So sorry for your losses OP. My father died a couple of years ago although he’d been I’ll since I was a teenager, so I effectively lost him much earlier. My DM worked full time and he was pretty much a stay at home dad - I was an only child so most of my childhood memories are of him and me.

Im a similar age to you. The 90s were a great time to be young. Sometimes something random will send me right back to a funny memory from those times- spending hours playing with the lip glosses at the Miss Selfridge makeup counter. Those were the days before on-demand tv so each tv show was such a big deal wasn’t it? I too remember Gladiators being a highlight of my Saturday nights. My dad always bought me a massive bag of pick n mix from Sainsbury on Saturday mornings and then we’d go to the cafe and eat cherry cheesecake. It’s a wonder I have any teeth left!

There are a lot of things I’d love to do again but I’d want to know what I know now if that makes sense- I’d love to get another shot at school- work harder, have more confidence in myself. I’m much more confident now, I wish I could take my younger self aside and have a word with her!! (And also tell her to work harder at school!!)

Yes all the time! I wish I was about 18. I settled down very young and at 18 I was just free of my parents, earning my own money, out almost every night with friends and just loving being young and free! Met my DH at 19 and basically settled down within a year or two.
Very happy now and wouldn't change the choices I made as it led me here but sometimes I do wish I'd made more of my younger years.

Yes please😁

No, I'm much happier now than when I was young, and I'm in my late 60s. Not that I've had a bad life, at all, but it's just easier.

I'd go back to age 3/4. My evil older sister was at school, I played with my toys, got to nap, just me and my mum all day. Life was so simple.

I know what you mean OP. You've described it perfectly.

Do you have kids. I loved trying to make my kids childhoods happy. Not in a naff 'making memories" instagram kind of way but just in a simple happy home type of way. Iykwim

I can't imagine how difficult it must be to have lost a loved parent so young.

I had a dysfunctional and rather shit childhood so, no. But I´m sorry you have lost your mum and other loved ones.

It's pretty common and normal to wish to be young again, yes.

I would love to be young again. I was so pretty but nobody saw it because I was broke and stuck at home. If I was young now I could easily be an influencer and take pretty photos of myself, which I can’t do in reality because I’m old and ugly. And I would have found it easier to find a good relationship because online dating exists now; in the old days the only choices were whoever you happened to meet at work or down the pub. Jobs are easier too; lots of opportunities for self employment or remote working.

Also I’m terrified of menopause. I don’t want to be trapped in a cycle of slowly deteriorating and taking medication every day for the rest of my life. I wish I could go back to a time before I gave birth and experience not having the birth injuries that cause me pain every single day and make me look ugly. I just want to be healthy again.

Yes. I really miss the 90s and being a teenager. It was fucking awesome and I didn’t appreciate it at the time not least because there were no stupid phones everywhere

Only if I could do things differently

The 90s really were the best time to be a teenager.

We were young enough to understand emerging technology but too old for mobile phones and the internet to play a role.