What were you doing half your lifetime ago?

[Bobje]

I was 26, working in London, living with my sister in a very nice flat, just off Russell Square.
We both worked in media and were having the time of our lives.
Little did I know, in the following week I would meet my now DH.

I was 20, getting ready to go back to finish my final year in uni. Having proper youngster angst about leaving my boyfriend at home (no idea why, it worked out fine and he’s DH now).

I was working a part time job, seemed to have plenty of money and was having a thoroughly nice time tbh.

Finished Uni, interrailing around Europe, was the best life.

I was pregnant with my eldest, aged 22. Not quite at the point of realising what a shit his Dad is. Sigh

Was a year married. A lifetime ago!

Whoop whoop living my best life having a bloody ball!!
I was well established in my career, living in my first house, going on fantastic holidays, I was young, slim, gorgeous and full of life and the freedom that all brings.
Happy happy times.
I have lived a bloody amazing life.

Married to exH, SAHM with 4 and 1 year old. Couldn’t have imagined this life I have now at all… working in a job I love with four kids, 2 grandkids and a wonderful husband.

I was 26, had just finished my second year in my first teaching job in London and was having a whale of a time socially! A couple of years later I would move schools and meet future dh.

I was 19. In my first year of uni. I’d met so many people who I had no idea had led such a privileged upbringing, I just thought they were posh, I remember very clearly being amazed at how posh they were and feeling less than. I’ve come a long way since then of course!

I was very much living in my haze of an African gap year, desperate to go back but not really being able to make it happen (not much has changed!)

I was 19, had dropped out uni after first year and had an eight month old baby and was living with her dad (now dh). Did two 13 hour shifts in a bar and was just about to start a new job and start college.

I was 19 years old, a parent to a one year old baby, in an unhappy relationship with her dad and studying Access to Nursing course.

I was 27 - married (to XH), we owned a house, had a toddler and I was pregnant with the second. It was mostly a lovely time - I'd really taken to motherhood, we didn't have much money but we had everything we needed, had lots of friends around.

I was 23, had recently started my first job as an editorial assistant after a year of faffing about after uni, then a Post graduate publishing course. I was living at my parents, but in process of buying my own little place in NE London that completed just before my 24th birthday. Hanging out a lot with a group of friends from an Internet forum (not MN!) through whom I was to meet DH about a year later.

DP

I was twenty, a few months off finding out I was pregnant in my second year at uni. I had to move back to my home city and put my studies on hold.

My whole family must have wondered how it would all work out. Here we are, three kids later, I went back and got my degree and masters and now work in the role I have always wanted to.

I was 25, just moved back home after my 7 year relationship ended. Had a great year of travelling and a few flings, then got together with DH the following summer.

I was in Australia on a working holiday visa - fantastic time!

I was in my senior year at uni, I applied for an internship and met wonderful people who are still friends until today. I was enjoying the californian sunshine and lifestyle which I took for granted, I miss it so much today. Life could have been so different had I stayed.

I was nearly 29, my middle DD, who I struggled to conceive, was one and I was hoping to be pregnant again. I had my third a year later.

Thank you! I'm so proud looking back and seeing how much I've managed for us in the past 17 years.
The scary flat was a dingy little council place in a high rise block. The flat itself wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't 4 flights up in the air with all sorts of antisocial things the other side of my door. One of my neighbours overdosed and died, one of the residents would knock on people's doors asking to borrow a knife to turn it on them. Thankfully I was warned about it happening before they knocked on my door. There was a brothel run by 2 police officers whilst I was there, so weird men hanging around wasn't abnormal, neither was drunk men who would be shouted to shut up out of the windows, then they'd miscount the floors or windows or whatever to then be woken up by them banging loudly and threatening me through the door- for something I didn't do.

The thing that made me eventually leave was when someone tried to shut down a party that the opposite flat were having (they had many after they lost their child to SS) and someone at the party wanted to fight, and the man had his head smashed in on my front door.
I was a bundle of nerves because of that place. I wasn't even there for 18 months!

25, living in a shared flat in West Hampstead with my best friend who died 6 years ago now. Had a poorly paid job I didn’t love but was out all the time, drank and smoked too much and (in retrospect) was completely gorgeous!

It was with great pleasure that I'd recently left the horror that was secondary school! On the last day, I threw my entire uniform in the bin (my mother wouldn't let me burn it...) and I swore that, with the exception of GCSE Results Day, I'd never go back there. So far, I've stuck to it. I even moved miles away so that my future children would never be at risk of having to go there!

Older people kept telling me, "Oh, your schooldays are the best days of your life!" With horror, I responded, "You're telling me that it's going to get worse...?" My own grandmother described sending me to school as, "It's like sending a lamb to slaughter!"

I'm pleased to say that life has improved considerably since then!

It's nice to see what other people were up to.

20s, drinking, clubbing, shagging, studying, working, go go go.
40s, raising young children, cleaning, cooking, working, slow slow slow.

20s, moving every year or so
40s, master of an entire house that's all my own

I was 20 and was just about to start the 3rd year of my nurse training. I'd just met my boyfriend (now DH). I was living at home with parents and Dsis and times were good

I was 31, living in London and planning my move to Dublin. Very quietly...

@MrBeanMustBeMyDad that must have been terrifying for you, especially being so young and with a baby.
You are amazing and I bet you've made a wonderful life now for you both ❤️
(I thought it was the other sort of scary!👻 but your situation takes actual bravery to stick out)

I'm sorry to hear of those who have suffered losses since your half a lifetime ago.

It seems many of us were in London at the same time.
I wonder if any of us have actually crossed paths...