What was your life like when you were 24?

[OkSoqhateo]

The title says it all. Were you living with your parents still? What was your job like? What did your social life consist of?

I was engaged to my now DH. Working in my first proper job after uni, as an accounts assistant which was boring but I got quite comfortable there and ended up staying nearly 8 years in the end.
Me and (now) DH would go on lots of holidays every year, we were saving money for a house deposit and had spare cash to spend on ourselves too. It was bliss in some ways but I remember being extremely self conscious at that age and struggled with some of my friendships.

Fast forward I'm now 34 with 2 young kids. It's very hard work although I'm proud of what we've achieved in those 10 years financially. But I do miss those more care free days where we could be selfish and relax more!

I had just bought a house with DP. We are still together now, moved house and have a DS aged 4 :)

Just started my PhD studies, single, renting a house, teaching part time to make money. Really busy with work/studies, so not a lot of time to socialise.

A few weeks after my 24th birthday I arrived in Italy after spending 5 months travelling south America. Found a stable job with a company with good working conditions for parents so I started making plans to buy a house, settle down and start a family. Had found a boyfriend and bought a house within a few months but it was a few more years before the children came along.

Living in a rented flat with my partner and pregnant with my first child. Worked in a management role in a career I’d been building since I was 18 and preparing to buy our first house the following year

I was married, working with my husband in Central London and earning 6 figures. Out every night for dinner or drinks, hosting dinners at the weekends and going to posh work events I didn't fit in. A stark change from 18 year old me living in a tiny flat and earning minimum wage, thinking I had no future.

Now live in the middle of nowhere, 5 dc and a menagerie of farm animals.

I was a year into my first proper job, an analyst with McKinsey, the management consultants. It was exciting at first but scary and pretty quickly I hated it!

I was sharing a 2 bed flat in London. Or rather, I was paying half the rent, but barely lived there as I was mostly living in hotels during the week and with my partner (now husband) in his house in Oxford at weekends. I gave it up shortly afterwards. My social life was fairly low key: mostly with my boyfriend and our mutual friends in Oxford who were mostly a bit older and more domesticated than me. Sometimes we did fun stuff in London together.

At 25 I left my London job and started a PhD in California!

Married and pregnant.

Just bought my first house.

Doing 2 jobs and finishing an MA.

Married 2 years and 3 years into mortgage with a newborn. Crazy looking back

Were these years both in Halls or Uni accommodation?

Has he ever lived in a rented house share with friends?

Moved in with my boyfriend from a house share at some point that year. I was a teacher. He was a DJ so lots of nights out both with him and with my work mates who were all a good laugh. We were in north London, it was a really good scene.

Awful. Depressed. On benefits for anxiety later diagnosed autistic. No friends. Recovering from domestic violence. Living a council flat. Really wish someone would've helped me

Living independently (house share or similar) for past 7 years.
Worked and put myself through 2 years back at college and was in 3rd year of my degree.
Working 30hrs a week most weeks, and out having fun in between.

I was in a long term relationship that was coming to it's end. Owned my own home. Working. Living for the weekends out with my girls.

Turning 24, I had a 17 month old and a 1 week old and I had just chucked exH out after finding out he had spent all of our money on drugs and we couldn’t pay the mortgage.
no social life, no job (id given up to be a SAHM after falling pregnant with dc2) and was in a deep pnd for the next few years.

Married and skint.

I was married, renting a flat with DH in a place I hated, working all hours for a pittance with a very long commute, saving every measly penny I could so we could one day buy our own place somewhere a bit nicer.

Was buying my own flat, had recently left the NHS as it was awful even back then, this is the very early 1990’s. Was still with childhood sweetheart and at that point it was still going good. Went out a lot clubbing and to bars with friends. The women in my family used to all meet every Saturday lunchtime, so up to 5 sisters depending on who could make it plus my Mum and Auntie, very good times.

It was 1996. My dad was still alive. I was just finishing my (free) degree after having qualified as a nurse in 1993. I walked into a job. I was still officially living at home but spent most time at my bf, now DH. We bought our first three bed detached house for £67,000 late that year. I was slim and pretty. I went clubbing with friends frequently, the music scene was fab.
God, the 90's and life in general at that time in general was amazing.

I'll be able to tell you in 4 years.

Living in London in a house share. Good graduate scheme job, friends living nearby so I had a great social life. Pre internet and mobile phones so we made a lot of effort to meet up and go to bars, restaurants and nightclubs or just hang out in each others houses. It was fun and carefree.

It was the year I bought my first house - we'd been renting for a couple of years before that. My then-partner and I worked full time, on not especially compatible shifts, so although our mortgage was much cheaper than renting, there were limited opportunities for socialising - mainly local pubs and Italian restaurants, of which there were many within walking distance of our house. Occasionally we organised a barbecue or a dinner party with friends which usually became a giant piss up!

I marvel now at the energy I had back then, for doing things like hopping on a train after work on Friday and going to visit a friend for the weekend.

In my job, they were just about getting us all onto Windows and I had to sit through rather patronising training courses along the lines of 'this is called a mouse'. I had been using Windows since the big day when a PC appeared with it on in our university computer lab, but everyone had to sit through the same 'Windows for people who barely know what a computer is' training 😃

Overall I remember it as a happy time when I felt optimistic.

lol not that much better! My life hasn’t changed much although I earn more money and am now studying a masters.

I regularly socialise but it’s weird, I think the pandemic has taken something away from life, like sucked the fun out of my 20s. Before Covid I probably would have gone to a club but I have zero desire to do so now. I think there’s a lot of pressure on young people to have your life together by 30 but I find myself wanting to relive my early 20s vs settling down.

I can totally relate to your son and my advice to him would be to go travelling. Plus if he’s not going out much or isn’t active on social media, he isn’t going to meet people to date.

I had just qualified and was a junior doctor… most of being 24 was a being absolutely exhausted, not functioning on much sleep, being constantly terrified I would kill someone and being in absolute fear of more senior medical staff ( was yelled at lot.. it was acceptable 35 years ago.. medicine has changed a lot thank god)
I was pretty miserable in my personal life.. I thought I was unlovable. Had come from a very abusive dysfunctional background and felt very worthless and very lonely.
Looking back I think I was likely severely depressed.
my life got heaps better.. ditched my thick glasses and got contacts so felt better about myself, started exercising, looked after myself. Had a bit abussive relationship in early 30’s .. I just wanted to know what sex felt like.( really bad with this person 😀)
Didn’t start to bloom until mid 30’s .. met lovely husband, felt better bout myself , horrific junior doctor years stopped and enjoyed being a GP.. find it all consuming but GP is my “calling” and feel very privileged. Got lots kind things said to me by patients, chocolates, and a lovely woman who I had cared for 20 years baked me the most amazing Christmas Cake.
i was a late bloomer but life is good and precious.
If life is hard in your 20’s and early 30’s.. hold on .. be true to yourself.. seek help when you need it

It would have been 2009. Now husband and I had bought our first flat about a year or so earlier so I felt like a proper grown up with a mortgage and a commute! I had a job which although nothing to do with my degree I enjoyed and was good at. I was in a good team and had been selected to do some internal management training programmes with a view to taking over from the boss who would be moving up to a regional role. I had disposable income and me and my boyfriend/now husband would go to a gig about once a month, get drunk and stagger home on the last train. Happy days 🤣