Last night at the gym (actually on the way back) my ipod decided to play me Avril Lavigne's "Nobody's Fool" (apologies, couldn't find an official video), followed by Blink 182 "What's My Age Again?"
I might've fallen for that when I was fourteen
And a little more green
But it's amazing what a couple of years can mean
Clearly Avril at 16/17 felt that she was much more worldly-wise than she was at 14.
Nobody likes you when you're 23
...
My friends say I should act my age
What's my age again?
And this guy is being accused of acting too childishly for the grand old age of 23.
It made me think that there is only a very small window in your life where you can seriously say Feeling twenty-two, acting seventeen (Katie Melua "Closest Thing to Crazy") before you scoff that 22 and 17 are so close together you can barely remember the difference.
It also reminded me of Stuart Baggs (of Apprentice 2010) in his "You're Fired" follow-up interview, claiming to be much more mature than he had been during the filming of the series. Either the presenter or another guest mocked him, saying "oh yes, now you;re 22 you're much more grown-up than when you were 21." (this part is from memory)
So at what point does it stop? Is there a time when we stop looking back on how we've grown?
When I was 20 I was naive, but now I'm much more wise.
When I was 30 I was idealistic, but now I'm much more pragmatic.
When I was 40... when I was 50... when I was 60... I was <adjective>, but now I'm much more <opposite adjective>.
Well, I am 37 and I am still doing it. If I look back to age 32 or thereabouts, I find myself thinking I was a fool back then. Of course, back then I thought I had been a pain in the arse at age 25 ... etc etc.
ReplyDeleteI do think you reach a point where you forgive yourself for the stuff that really ^is^ from a different stage of your life (I am no longer cringing much at my own behaviour aged 16, for example). It's the recent-to-medium-term past self that we tend to repudiate most.
I think it will continue all my life. Flip side is that it's probably because we are still allowing ourselves to believe we can change and grow, which is probably a good thing, right?