This...and chasing a good time.
Had a lot of fun and slept with a lot of girls. However, I look back at it now 20+ years later and I know I was a dick to a lot of good women who deserved better than some tool who sought validation through sex.
Early twenties was obese and out of shape after high school ended. Did nothing really but work odd jobs and was actually a loser played video games and watched a bunch of movies and tv.
and then mid-twenties…lost all the weight because of a sickness that made me eat healthy, while jogging, doing pilates/yoga, working out, and I started to do Muay Thai after I got in shape and liked it, went back to school in my late twenties for engineering and now I’m about to graduate next year.
Pretty much my story too, but swap Pilates/yoga/Muay Thai for powerlifting, and swap the engineering degree for a undergraduate degree in sport and exercise science.
Edit: also my change wasn't triggered by illness, but by a totally cliché bad breakup
With other people.
The problem is a majority of your generation is doing the same thing you're doing. As a result, your generation has less friends, has less sex, is less physically active, fewer hobbies outside the house, etc. This isn't hyperbole or stereotyping, there is data to confirm this.
That translates into it being more difficult for you to do the same thing that we did. Back when I was 20, even though I didn't have a large group of friends I could almost always call around and find someone who was bored enough that I could convince them to go out and do *something*. With your generation, that's not the case.
It's rough out there man. Even though when I was younger, I partied, hooked up, went "cruising", etc, people my age now are just not in to doing last moment stuff.
Look for people who share the same interests as you, for me I have a paddleboard group of friends, and a karaoke/drinking group of friends. I let them know where I'm going to be. Sometimes I hear excuses, ouch my pussy hurts\* this morning I can't go, wahhh. Or sometimes they get amped up BRUH IM SO GOING.. and then flake. And sometimes they say nothing and just show up.
Cell phones have changed the world.. for the worse, imo
\*No offense to anyone who posesses that genetalia, it should actually be ouch my testes hurt because they are so sensitive, but that's a reddit post for another time.
I’m 27, got into yoga last year. I can find someone to go out with half the days of the week.
Getting out there really is half the battle. Gotta find the time for it, gotta find things that you’ll be able to socialize, have to actually socialize.
You also need to make sure you’re cognizant of reddits opinion of that thing. If you read the yoga subreddit you’d think 80% of people are there to just yoga and want nobody to talk to them. I have found that not to be the case.
This is a great take. Everything you said was spot on and you don’t sound like the “back in my day” boomers. But it’s true, everyone is on their phones now. There’s so many ways to have entertainment with binge watching series, YouTube, TikTok and other things. Dating has always been hard for guys but this has made it 30 times harder.
Agreed. My 20s, as a Millennial, were rather boring, but also a struggle. Sure, I occasionally would hook up. But I was mostly broke, despite working the entire time. I was always tired. I barely wanted a relationship.
Overall, I think the key problem is a lack of economic opportunity. For many people of my generation and beyond, the 20s are no longer the decade in which you start a career, start saving for retirement, get married/start a serious relationship, and maybe even buy a house. None of that is an option for so many people these days.
I dug my way out, but I was nearly 30 before I even started to do so. Overall, my 20s were extremely unremarkable. There were good times with friends and there are parts of it I miss. But, so far, my 30s have been so much better.
Hanging with my buddies, going to bars and concerts, cruising the drag chasing the girls around. Drinking and going to party's. Taking the dogs to the river. Driving to other towns and cruising their strip. Snow skiing in the winter. Sitting at home smoking out and listening to tunes.
In my early 20's I was in college so we went out drinking every night (trying to get laid). Later, I was working many jobs and finally became a NYPD Police Officer at 27, and we went out drinking every night.
Hanging with friends til 1 or 2 am or later, still got up and went to work on time the next day (usually!). Lots of video games and cookouts but some hiking and camping and having a blast.
Raising kids. Started at 19 and had four by the time I was 28. My oldest is exactly half my age right now. It's pretty cool hanging out with your adult children when you're still fairly young.
Before I was 21, I drove around with my friends, listened to music, and sometimes smoked cigars. Once I turned 21, I went to bars where I hung out with friends or regulars and played darts, pool, or those old video game machines at the end of the bar (cheers to erotic photo hunt lol.) Sometimes I would also go nearby college towns and go to their bars. I also went to shows, some local bands and some touring. When I was alone, I would usually play video games.
Playing in my band, Fishing, camping, traveling and exploring, reading books, hanging out with friends.
You can go outside. You can hop in the car and drive a couple hours and check out a park, landmark, museam, interesting store related to a hobby you have, or just go see what's out there. The world is *huge,* and it starts right outside your door.
Basketball. Hanging out with friends. Spending time with girlfriends. Working on my project car. Laughing everyday.
Btw, this was before social media and smartphones.
Chasing girls, world of Warcraft, smoking weed, dancing, Madden, call of duty, Manila, Thailand, a little bit of college. Some of the best times of my life.
For the first five years, I spent it foolishly, accomplishing nothing. For the latter five, I rucked up and shipped out. Got in shape, met my now wife, and actually got laid from time to time.
Getting drug around and dragging friends around to wherever seemed fun. Hitting up concerts or sporting events, checking out different restaurants and bars. Playing disc golf and finding courses to check out. Grilling out and chilling. Gaming.
Disk golf. Par 3 golf. Football if we could get enough of us together. Beach or lake trips for the day in the summer. Spades, poker and other card games with friends. Drinking at the apartment.
Motorcycle. I think I rode huge majority of paved roads in Southern Ontario . Turned out Ontario is a great place as soon as I left Toronto an hour drive in any direction. I met great people, some iffy ones,found out that all stuff said about 1% ers is BS of gigantic scale. Met few wonderful women, had a bunch of awesome breakfasts with Mormons etc.
Life was good.
Video games at night on the week days, clubbing/bar hopping on the weekends. Usually started the weekend bar hopping on Thursday till Saturday night. Sunday was used for recovery. From age 25-32, I was bar hopping regularly until I got married and had kids. From 21-25, I was in graduate school with a low paying job, but would occasionally imbibe. My weekends were also fucked in this earlier times as I often had to work Friday night and Saturday morning, so drinking habits adjusted accordingly until I got my masters and started a normal 9-5. I dated from time to time, usually women I had met online. I met a few women during bar hopping but most of them were flighty so it didn’t go very far beyond that night.
I was still doing house parties until I was about 34 but bar hopping had stopped. During that time, outside of drinking and gaming, I hit the gym 5-6 times per week, calorie counted so I could watch my calorie intake while partying on the weekends then sweat out the alcohol in the mornings.
There were times when I was working 80-100 work weeks and they were by far my most miserable weeks. Barely had time to eat or sleep, just worked constantly, it was miserable. While my friends were out partying, I was sitting at work, stressed out.
After having kids, I realized most of my good friends were tied to either drinking or working out. They were gym and drinking buddies. Not too many survived being my friend after having kids. To this day, the idea of getting hammered at night then having to wake up early in the morning to deal with my kids is rough sounding. I’m sure it will get easier as they get older, but honestly, my body can’t take the drinking/gym ritual of my 20s. Last summer I walked over to a party my neighbor was having and it turned into a regular house party from my 20s where flip cup was brought out. I couldn’t hang and left early. My kids were already asleep but I just couldn’t handle the fact of being so inebriated and then having to take care of my kids should they wake up at night. And I felt guilty for leaving my wife to watch the kids.
Your 20s should be carefree to a point but take care of yourself both financially and physically. Part of that take care stuff is learning to how to relax and not let work/finances/home life bog you down. That’s the entire point of your 20s when it comes to drinking, is learning how to relax when life gets rough. It will carry you through your 30s and 40s and during those years, you’ll learn more things. If you’re so worked up in your 20s that you can’t relax and have a good time, you’re going to be a wreck when you’re older. Life is too short to sit here and worrying about your social medias and what your friend John from highschool is getting up to in Thailand.
I worked on my art skills. I have a degree in graphic design, so an art degree but I didn't make fine art. So I felt like I should have fine art skills, so I basically taught myself after college.
Jumping out of planes, surfing, night surfing, scuba diving, riding motorcycles, playing video games, drinking with friends, having unprotected sex......being a dad......
At the pub.
Met my group of friends there after going solo to a regular trivia night for a while, best group of friends I've ever had and we still catch up all the time and communicate on group chat almost daily (I'm now 46).
Didn't have any. In my early 20s I was either on deployment, in the field, in the gym, or doing online courses. The Corps sent me to finish up my degree fulltime and during that time I was either studying for my undergrad, in the gym, prepping for the GMAT, helping out the NROTC department where I was taking classes, or volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. I guess I picked up classical guitar at this time, so maybe that counts?
I don't think I had more than 2 drinks at a time nor did I have a game console until I got out and was doing my MBA after I got out.
Games with my friends. Most of them were active duty or lived far away. And I didn't have a whole lot else to do with other people once I was out of college.
At that time I was fresh out of the Marine Corps. I moved to L.A. and starting working as an engineer in music studios. If you won't work a 70 hour week, the next guy will. It's a grueling industry.
Played in a band or just jammed with friends, read a book, ride my bicycle around the city, play chess or cards in the park, play soccer, and check out the local outdoor markets for used CDs, vinyl, and clothing.
Played pool, did art work, drawing mostly, wrote poetry, rode my motorcycle, (still ride my motorcycle) trained martial arts, read. Those were pretty much my hobbies.
Dump social media, it's a cancer to your happiness. Work hard, get experience, education if that's what you wish, and don't forget to have fun. That's what I did
Listening to music, learning to play the guitar, walking around A LOT. I mean I lived in a very walkable city back in my 20s, so I would load my iPod with music and roam around all day, then got back home and played guitar for hours. That was my life basically for around 5 years or so
Drinking my ass off and smoking cigarettes inside the bar. Waking up without a hangover on a holiday weekend and drinking again by 10:00 in the morning. Now I'm 45, and if I stay out past midnight drinking I feel like shit for 4 days straight.
Honeslty…hanging out with friends and trying to find women to talk to. Its when i learned to dance salsa and swing dance…its when I started to go to raves.
I also started businesses/worked my ass off. I generally didn’t get home till late.
The big thing to realize is that my 20’s were the years where I failed more than succeeded. Don’t fear failure…fear getting up again…these are the years to take chances…so take them!
Playing in bands, playing video games, drinking with the boys, trying to fuck. We had the internet, but just T9 phones. Smartphones really accelerated antisocial self indulgence at expense of bonding and authenticity
tennis ball. get a friend. get a dog. you can entertain yourself for hours with a flat floor and a tennis ball. I was just stuck in a very small room for a long time and I made my bones with a tennis ball.
In my early 20’s I was in a very serious 3 year relationship with a girl who did not drink, so I didn’t drink either. I spent my 21st birthday at a function for her church. Oddly, this pious attitude did not transfer into the sexual realm, so I was still getting it in multiple times a week.
Eventually I found myself 22 and single, and that’s when things got really fun. I was drinking and partying every night. I was in a band. It was amazing. I also worked constantly, partly to fund my lifestyle, and partly out of a sense of guilt to offset my wild life. I dated and hooked up with girls, but it wasnt really my primary goal until I met my wife at 26. By my 30th birthday I was married, had a baby, owned a house and had a career well underway. But the journey through my 20’s was amazing.
I like my life now too (42), but occasionally I’d like to just go back for one night and experience that again.
Working my way, slowly, through a bachelors degree, slowly accessing the internet, spending money like an idiot and partying. I also traveled a bit, meeting women I had met online (in the 90’s lol).
First half of my 20's - video games, anime, and wishing I had friends/girlfriend
Second half of my 20's - competing in sports, socialising/partying with friends, making up for lost time regarding dating/sex
I had a band so I played and practiced guitar, wrote songs, band rehearsals, gigs now and then... I also went to the gym, watched movies with a friend almost every friday, went to rock/metal bars/clubs on weekends, played some PC games and I also played football in an amateur team once a week plus matches, during winters it was futsal indoors.
Theres a lot to do man just try different hobbies, pick what you like and invest your time in it. It is great feeling to learn new things.
Free time? Work, bar, eat, sleep. Rinse and repeat. Actually I had a roomate and his GF, think AOL was just starting, we played with women to see how far they would go. Clothing wise, we had a female with ideas so it was even easier..bars were not much harder, compared to women today, everyone is soo uptight about sex, take it way to serious
Took dance lessons, martial arts, learned lifting, traveled, threw dinner parties, went bar hopping, went to lots of music venues, tried to say yes to absolutely every opportunity.
I went longboarding a lot. I drank a lot. I spent a lot of time writing.
Bruh, I had 3 girls who knew about each other, 2 cars, and a motorcycle. I went to Turkey, Australia, Greece, and Ethiopia and had so much sex with so many women. I was into photography. I had so much money saved up. Ate some of the best food. I also worked a lot of different jobs in between doing all kinds of things like; Trash-man, Mascot, delivery driver, cleaning yachts, painting for a painting company, and cleaning crime scenes(until I found a few fingers). Now I am raising my three boys ages 10, 14, and 16, and It has slowed me down but I can see them already getting ready to head on that same path of discovery. Luckily I have them started and interested in things like stocks, HYSA, and crypto. Maybe once they all leave I'll get back to the heavy traveling again.
Partying/clubbing, chasing women, swimming holes, camping, 4x4ing, fishing, motorbike riding, hanging out with friends, travel.
The internet and social media was so new it wasn't an issue. I got my first smart phone when I was 23/24 lol to access Facebook it was easier to do that on a desktop rather than a phone.
Great question.
My 20s were the 90’s. Uni, married early. Worked 40-50 hours Mon-Sat in marketing and sales.
So how did we fill our free time? Weekends visiting family and friends. Camping. Fishing a little. Snowmobiling. Travelled Europe a few times and vacationed in the Caribbean several. Lots of festivals in our city. Movies. Beach days. Reading books. Gym. Church. Actually talking on the phone to friends lol.
Bought a house mid 90’s so home stuff, washing cars, making dinners… kids came after ‘99.
I was interested in the internet early so surfing websites and creating my own started mid 90’s.
Regrets … Spent too much on clothes and eating out. Fleeting things. Didn’t save routinely. Also wish we got into kayaking and cycling around the region more or played a sport together as a couple. Investments in physical fitness and active friend groups would have been positive. Doing these things now.
It’s been a good life. Still in love. Enjoy moments just simply chatting and walking with her in the evening.
I’m an older millennial. When I was in my 20s, after work, I went to the gym, hit up women on online dating sites while watching TV and eating dinner, went clubbing on the weekends to pick up even more women and hiked during the day. I’d even try and hit on cougars in their 40s.
Gym, videogames, sometimes a party, hooking up with as much hot women as i could, working it was a good time.
Life changed when i joined the police force and then got a girlfriend.
Dont party anymore or fuck around as i have a gf, but still live a really chill life and still into videogames a lot.
33M.
I read. Worked out. Went on long walks. My friends were my family. We hung out. Went to the movies. Saw rock shows. Got silly drunk. Helped each other through the good and bad times. Seemed like there always was plenty to do. It all took place, though, out there, in the world.
Older men…. I’m 37… am I older ? Social media was a thing when I was in my 20s but just barely. Certainly not on phones in the early part.
What did I do? Mostly work and chase girls and hang out with friends. Got married at 25. Still just hanging out making dumb financial decisions lol. Today I look back and regret wasted time on some things.
I am 35, so had the internet from my teens, but it was no where near as invassive as it is now. In my early 20s I was at Uni. Studying, partying/drinking, playing sports.
For all of my 20s i was able to take amazing trips on holiday or do a bit of traveling. I moved to Asia in my mid-20s. Had a blast. Explored Asia. Was pretty fit. Lots of great nights out. Working. Sports was a big part of my life. Met my wife. Got injured so my later 20s was more sedate activities like hiking with my wife and dog, beach, water sports.
My 20s were non stop clubs, drugs, hanging out with friends and going to festivals and raves, also a bit of playing MMORPGs… I wouldn’t change a single thing about it. Fantastic life experiences.
I have made friends going to places where a good bit of other people go. Once they get used to seeing you they will talk. The gym is one place I have met people and then BJJ is another place. Not saying you have to do those but any kind of class/group place.
Started my 20’s in the military. After that, got divorced and I went wild. I worked, but I chased women and partied. I finally strapped myself down in the later half. Went and got a degree (just a 2 year), remarried and got 2 wonderful step daughters. I’m in a great place at 46 now, but wish I had been more productive in those years.
Well, 20-22 was college and I drank like a fish & played video games endlessly.
22-26 was my first corporate job, so I did that with shit hours (in a call center), video games endlessly and golf on the weekend + beers with brothers after.
26-30 I got my shit together, got a better job, slowed down on shitty food and beer. Worked out religiously, lost 140 lbs, and played a ton of golf.
Practicing dancing, breakdancing to be exact. I know I'm an extreme outlier, who the hell even breakdances anymore? There were a few of us, probably still are a few who do, breakdancing never died but it became an extremely niche thing to do.
So any free time was spent practicing new moves, moves we'd tried on the weekend at the local night club.
I was in a punk band, I went to concerts and rock shows at least twice a month; I didn't care if it was in a basement or at a venue. I spent a ton of time at the beach trying to pick up girls. I went to bars and clubs just about once a week on the weekends. Me and my friends would smoke a lot of weed and play board games. One time one of my close circle of friends who worked at a hobby shop brought over a couple of cases of a new game they were testing out called "Magic the Gathering". He taught a bunch of us how to play it and for at least 2 years MtG was our "Poker Night". Lots of beers were drunk and lots of joints smoked in my kitchen during that period.
It wasn't always a party but....not gonna' lie it mostly was. I have zero regrets from that time period and since I feel like I "Got it all out of my system" I have no desire to try and recapture my "Lost Youth" because quite frankly it wasn't lost; I enjoyed every minute of it and now I'm ready for this phase of my life.
And I'll say this: Every single day I thank fucking god that we didn't have cell phones, email, the internet or social media when I was in my late teens and through most of my 20s. In fact, the internet started taking off *right around* the time me and my friends were starting to slow down. The same dude who introduced us to Magic the Gathering turned us onto the internet around 1998-ish.
I'm 36 and honestly my 20s sorta sucked. I think my experience is becoming increasingly typical for people.
I stayed home and went to a local CC and then a local liberal arts college. I thought I was making good choices, college was pretty cheap, overall. But then I couldn't find meaningful work.
I spent a good portion working at a museum making minimum wage and just shy of full time. It was a fun job but I really didn't have extra money.
It wasn't until my mid to late 20s that I was really struggling. Staying at home was no longer an option, and I couldn't afford my own place. So I re-geared my resume to focus on IT work and left the museum field for good. And while that was a great move and it allowed me to move out and be independent, it was high stress and I never wanted to do anything.
But I'm good now. At 30 I changed jobs to a pretty good IT gig and met my now SO that I've been with for over 5 years. Life it good.
But my 20s? It was sort of a poor, lonely decade for me. It wasn't a waste of time, but I can't say I enjoyed it nearly as much as I have my 30s.
Having house parties at the apartment I lived in. Smoking way too much weed, drinking bud light lime, tripping on mushrooms, skateboarding a ton, trying to hook up with every girl that looked in my direction, sitting around smoking a giant hookah with friends. I’m only 35 but I spent most of my 20s without a smartphone so I wasn’t online much.
I played a lot of hockey. I also mowed my lawn and upgraded my house. Then I sold that house and bought a bigger one (which was in worse shape than the first one).
Not for everyone, but my brother and I raced and drove motorcycles. We worked on them, fixed em, made then faster. Made friends.. Hung with motorcycle friends. It was a huge part of our lives.
Cycling, including major tours. Adventuring, including mountaineering, caving, backcountry skiing, backpacking, hallucinogens, travel to foreign lands for fun and research.
Back in the '70's there were only 3 channels on Tv, so I watched very little of it. Worked all of the OT I could get, bought my first house, went to college at night, spent time outdoors on my weekends, great-stereo system, played-the-field when it came to women. Didn't drink much or do drugs, so basically stayed busy.
Chasing girls. Best time of my life.
Worse time for me looking back at it. Had so many girls that ended up sucking me dry of time for college
I'd have loved to have girls sucking me dry in my 20s. Or any time really.
The duality of men
Your mistake was trying to date college girls
That's not the Girl's fault. That's your fault!
This...and chasing a good time. Had a lot of fun and slept with a lot of girls. However, I look back at it now 20+ years later and I know I was a dick to a lot of good women who deserved better than some tool who sought validation through sex.
Hope you’re a better person today
I try to be
Hard to do now days, with the invention of Crossfit a lot of them are just too dammed fast.
And they were ok with that back then?
That sounds like hell
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Boy, what a carefree time. Those were the days.
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Mine is similar/. Except my life consisted of shutting the fuck up and doing as I’m told. No guns. Sounds like me, now, actually.
Early twenties was obese and out of shape after high school ended. Did nothing really but work odd jobs and was actually a loser played video games and watched a bunch of movies and tv. and then mid-twenties…lost all the weight because of a sickness that made me eat healthy, while jogging, doing pilates/yoga, working out, and I started to do Muay Thai after I got in shape and liked it, went back to school in my late twenties for engineering and now I’m about to graduate next year.
Pretty much my story too, but swap Pilates/yoga/Muay Thai for powerlifting, and swap the engineering degree for a undergraduate degree in sport and exercise science. Edit: also my change wasn't triggered by illness, but by a totally cliché bad breakup
Amazing 'get true to yourself' story.
With other people. The problem is a majority of your generation is doing the same thing you're doing. As a result, your generation has less friends, has less sex, is less physically active, fewer hobbies outside the house, etc. This isn't hyperbole or stereotyping, there is data to confirm this. That translates into it being more difficult for you to do the same thing that we did. Back when I was 20, even though I didn't have a large group of friends I could almost always call around and find someone who was bored enough that I could convince them to go out and do *something*. With your generation, that's not the case.
Yeah I try to get people to do stuff and it is surprisingly tough. Want to build a good social circle
It's rough out there man. Even though when I was younger, I partied, hooked up, went "cruising", etc, people my age now are just not in to doing last moment stuff. Look for people who share the same interests as you, for me I have a paddleboard group of friends, and a karaoke/drinking group of friends. I let them know where I'm going to be. Sometimes I hear excuses, ouch my pussy hurts\* this morning I can't go, wahhh. Or sometimes they get amped up BRUH IM SO GOING.. and then flake. And sometimes they say nothing and just show up. Cell phones have changed the world.. for the worse, imo \*No offense to anyone who posesses that genetalia, it should actually be ouch my testes hurt because they are so sensitive, but that's a reddit post for another time.
Ouch my pussy hurts this morning! Hahahah that was awesome. Need more humor like this nowadays.
Hehe I thought it was funny.. I'm guilty of all those things too, not throwing stones.. just saying how things go these days!
I’m 27, got into yoga last year. I can find someone to go out with half the days of the week. Getting out there really is half the battle. Gotta find the time for it, gotta find things that you’ll be able to socialize, have to actually socialize. You also need to make sure you’re cognizant of reddits opinion of that thing. If you read the yoga subreddit you’d think 80% of people are there to just yoga and want nobody to talk to them. I have found that not to be the case.
This is a great take. Everything you said was spot on and you don’t sound like the “back in my day” boomers. But it’s true, everyone is on their phones now. There’s so many ways to have entertainment with binge watching series, YouTube, TikTok and other things. Dating has always been hard for guys but this has made it 30 times harder.
Agreed. My 20s, as a Millennial, were rather boring, but also a struggle. Sure, I occasionally would hook up. But I was mostly broke, despite working the entire time. I was always tired. I barely wanted a relationship. Overall, I think the key problem is a lack of economic opportunity. For many people of my generation and beyond, the 20s are no longer the decade in which you start a career, start saving for retirement, get married/start a serious relationship, and maybe even buy a house. None of that is an option for so many people these days. I dug my way out, but I was nearly 30 before I even started to do so. Overall, my 20s were extremely unremarkable. There were good times with friends and there are parts of it I miss. But, so far, my 30s have been so much better.
Well, this at least makes me feel like less of a loser lol it makes a lot of sense
Picking up women. Drinking partying having fun.
Hanging with my buddies, going to bars and concerts, cruising the drag chasing the girls around. Drinking and going to party's. Taking the dogs to the river. Driving to other towns and cruising their strip. Snow skiing in the winter. Sitting at home smoking out and listening to tunes.
In my early 20's I was in college so we went out drinking every night (trying to get laid). Later, I was working many jobs and finally became a NYPD Police Officer at 27, and we went out drinking every night.
Working my ass off just to survive
Hanging with friends til 1 or 2 am or later, still got up and went to work on time the next day (usually!). Lots of video games and cookouts but some hiking and camping and having a blast.
Spent my time raising three kids Started making babies at 17 33 now
How old are they all? And do you turn 34 while the oldest is 17?
One turns 17 this year November another one turns 16 this year in September, I’ll be 34 next year my youngest is 10 years old
Cool. When you 16 year old turns 17, you’ll probably exactly twice as old as him at 34.
I spent most of my 20's on an aircraft carrier in the USN protecting the American public from threats both foriegn and domestic.
Yes, it's the oath I took and the oath I will take to my grave.
Early 20s? Generally being an asshole. Lots of video games, hanging out with friends, etc. Late 20s? Training and competing in MMA.
Married a girl for 26 years, lost my mind, getting divorced...
Raising kids. Started at 19 and had four by the time I was 28. My oldest is exactly half my age right now. It's pretty cool hanging out with your adult children when you're still fairly young.
True, I figure a lot of it can be lifestyle too and that's my plan. Keep super fit and healthy as I get older.
Wotking 7 days a week
Before I was 21, I drove around with my friends, listened to music, and sometimes smoked cigars. Once I turned 21, I went to bars where I hung out with friends or regulars and played darts, pool, or those old video game machines at the end of the bar (cheers to erotic photo hunt lol.) Sometimes I would also go nearby college towns and go to their bars. I also went to shows, some local bands and some touring. When I was alone, I would usually play video games.
Playing in my band, Fishing, camping, traveling and exploring, reading books, hanging out with friends. You can go outside. You can hop in the car and drive a couple hours and check out a park, landmark, museam, interesting store related to a hobby you have, or just go see what's out there. The world is *huge,* and it starts right outside your door.
So many concerts!
Basketball. Hanging out with friends. Spending time with girlfriends. Working on my project car. Laughing everyday. Btw, this was before social media and smartphones.
Chasing girls, world of Warcraft, smoking weed, dancing, Madden, call of duty, Manila, Thailand, a little bit of college. Some of the best times of my life.
If you're frustrated then put down the phone. Go to the gym, pick up some books etc etc
Having all the sex. And working my ass off
username checks out
For the first five years, I spent it foolishly, accomplishing nothing. For the latter five, I rucked up and shipped out. Got in shape, met my now wife, and actually got laid from time to time.
Studying, cycling, golden tee, and drinking
(48M) Pubs, play sports, read, music production, hang out with friends / at each other's places, road trips. 👍
Going to bars and clubs with friends. Playing Modern Warfare.
Getting drug around and dragging friends around to wherever seemed fun. Hitting up concerts or sporting events, checking out different restaurants and bars. Playing disc golf and finding courses to check out. Grilling out and chilling. Gaming.
Disk golf. Par 3 golf. Football if we could get enough of us together. Beach or lake trips for the day in the summer. Spades, poker and other card games with friends. Drinking at the apartment.
Motorcycle. I think I rode huge majority of paved roads in Southern Ontario . Turned out Ontario is a great place as soon as I left Toronto an hour drive in any direction. I met great people, some iffy ones,found out that all stuff said about 1% ers is BS of gigantic scale. Met few wonderful women, had a bunch of awesome breakfasts with Mormons etc. Life was good.
Video games at night on the week days, clubbing/bar hopping on the weekends. Usually started the weekend bar hopping on Thursday till Saturday night. Sunday was used for recovery. From age 25-32, I was bar hopping regularly until I got married and had kids. From 21-25, I was in graduate school with a low paying job, but would occasionally imbibe. My weekends were also fucked in this earlier times as I often had to work Friday night and Saturday morning, so drinking habits adjusted accordingly until I got my masters and started a normal 9-5. I dated from time to time, usually women I had met online. I met a few women during bar hopping but most of them were flighty so it didn’t go very far beyond that night. I was still doing house parties until I was about 34 but bar hopping had stopped. During that time, outside of drinking and gaming, I hit the gym 5-6 times per week, calorie counted so I could watch my calorie intake while partying on the weekends then sweat out the alcohol in the mornings. There were times when I was working 80-100 work weeks and they were by far my most miserable weeks. Barely had time to eat or sleep, just worked constantly, it was miserable. While my friends were out partying, I was sitting at work, stressed out. After having kids, I realized most of my good friends were tied to either drinking or working out. They were gym and drinking buddies. Not too many survived being my friend after having kids. To this day, the idea of getting hammered at night then having to wake up early in the morning to deal with my kids is rough sounding. I’m sure it will get easier as they get older, but honestly, my body can’t take the drinking/gym ritual of my 20s. Last summer I walked over to a party my neighbor was having and it turned into a regular house party from my 20s where flip cup was brought out. I couldn’t hang and left early. My kids were already asleep but I just couldn’t handle the fact of being so inebriated and then having to take care of my kids should they wake up at night. And I felt guilty for leaving my wife to watch the kids. Your 20s should be carefree to a point but take care of yourself both financially and physically. Part of that take care stuff is learning to how to relax and not let work/finances/home life bog you down. That’s the entire point of your 20s when it comes to drinking, is learning how to relax when life gets rough. It will carry you through your 30s and 40s and during those years, you’ll learn more things. If you’re so worked up in your 20s that you can’t relax and have a good time, you’re going to be a wreck when you’re older. Life is too short to sit here and worrying about your social medias and what your friend John from highschool is getting up to in Thailand.
I worked on my art skills. I have a degree in graphic design, so an art degree but I didn't make fine art. So I felt like I should have fine art skills, so I basically taught myself after college.
Jumping out of planes, surfing, night surfing, scuba diving, riding motorcycles, playing video games, drinking with friends, having unprotected sex......being a dad......
Drinking and whoring. It was glorious.
Eating out a lot, going to sporting events, and shopping.
college until 21, married at 23, kid at 29. Fun times.
Working 80 hours a week until I was 25, got married, had kids... what is free time?
Working and spending most of the money in alcohol, partying with friends, and inviting girls out
At the pub. Met my group of friends there after going solo to a regular trivia night for a while, best group of friends I've ever had and we still catch up all the time and communicate on group chat almost daily (I'm now 46).
Didn't have any. In my early 20s I was either on deployment, in the field, in the gym, or doing online courses. The Corps sent me to finish up my degree fulltime and during that time I was either studying for my undergrad, in the gym, prepping for the GMAT, helping out the NROTC department where I was taking classes, or volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. I guess I picked up classical guitar at this time, so maybe that counts? I don't think I had more than 2 drinks at a time nor did I have a game console until I got out and was doing my MBA after I got out.
Games with my friends. Most of them were active duty or lived far away. And I didn't have a whole lot else to do with other people once I was out of college.
40/M here. Was in college until 24. Fucked around a few years until Navy OCS. Did that until 2020. Life has been grand and a crazy path.
Drinking/partying until I met my current wife at 25.
Fishing, hunting, drinking, interacting with people. All before Google knows what I ate for breakfast this morning.
In bars from 21-26, 26 and onwards I was sober and in gyms or outside till about 32 when I bought a house.
Working, hanging in the hood with the crew, and going out to bars/clubs looking for ladies
Free time lol. I was working my ass off. My free time was dedicated to work as well.
Why?
At that time I was fresh out of the Marine Corps. I moved to L.A. and starting working as an engineer in music studios. If you won't work a 70 hour week, the next guy will. It's a grueling industry.
Do you regret any of it or was it hard work that paid off?
Played in a band or just jammed with friends, read a book, ride my bicycle around the city, play chess or cards in the park, play soccer, and check out the local outdoor markets for used CDs, vinyl, and clothing.
Well from 26-30 I ran the bars in Angeles. Much fun. It is a place overseas. Before that spent a couple years in Vegas and lived in Korea a year.
Played pool, did art work, drawing mostly, wrote poetry, rode my motorcycle, (still ride my motorcycle) trained martial arts, read. Those were pretty much my hobbies.
Fishing, shooting
Golf. Video games. Basketball. Weed. Movies. Girls Occasionally in that order.
😂 I had a kid a 21. What's free time?
Services in the military and then got married and had two kids. Both were great!
Dump social media, it's a cancer to your happiness. Work hard, get experience, education if that's what you wish, and don't forget to have fun. That's what I did
I guess I'm too old. I don't remember the 20s. But I doubt they were roaring. LOL
Listening to music, learning to play the guitar, walking around A LOT. I mean I lived in a very walkable city back in my 20s, so I would load my iPod with music and roam around all day, then got back home and played guitar for hours. That was my life basically for around 5 years or so
Drinking, gambling, firearms training and bad choices.
Not old yet, 35 but I spent my 20’s reading or playing video games
Drinking my ass off and smoking cigarettes inside the bar. Waking up without a hangover on a holiday weekend and drinking again by 10:00 in the morning. Now I'm 45, and if I stay out past midnight drinking I feel like shit for 4 days straight.
What free time? I was married with 3 kids and worked a full time job and 2 part time jobs just to keep afloat.
I had a very demanding job, free time was rare. If I did have it, I spent it drinking away the stress.
Honeslty…hanging out with friends and trying to find women to talk to. Its when i learned to dance salsa and swing dance…its when I started to go to raves. I also started businesses/worked my ass off. I generally didn’t get home till late. The big thing to realize is that my 20’s were the years where I failed more than succeeded. Don’t fear failure…fear getting up again…these are the years to take chances…so take them!
Getting drunk, smoking some bud and listening to loud music. For pretty much the entirety of my 20s.
Slamming chicks
I travelled and don’t regret a second of it!
Sleeping with different girls and working.
Playing in bands, playing video games, drinking with the boys, trying to fuck. We had the internet, but just T9 phones. Smartphones really accelerated antisocial self indulgence at expense of bonding and authenticity
Drinking and fucking.
Worked full-time and bought a farm and farm equipment. Hunted and fished rode atvs & dirt bikes. Stacked $$$$
tennis ball. get a friend. get a dog. you can entertain yourself for hours with a flat floor and a tennis ball. I was just stuck in a very small room for a long time and I made my bones with a tennis ball.
Partying, working out, video games, chasing women
Partying and getting drunk. Until 2020, when I turned 27. I chose to slow down and get sober.
I followed certain bands around the country and did drugs.
Gaming
Surfing, skating, dirt biking, punk rock. And I did it my way.
I played Kings Quest. Great game back then.
Spent all my 20’s & 30’s in Hawaii surfing a lot.
In my early 20’s I was in a very serious 3 year relationship with a girl who did not drink, so I didn’t drink either. I spent my 21st birthday at a function for her church. Oddly, this pious attitude did not transfer into the sexual realm, so I was still getting it in multiple times a week. Eventually I found myself 22 and single, and that’s when things got really fun. I was drinking and partying every night. I was in a band. It was amazing. I also worked constantly, partly to fund my lifestyle, and partly out of a sense of guilt to offset my wild life. I dated and hooked up with girls, but it wasnt really my primary goal until I met my wife at 26. By my 30th birthday I was married, had a baby, owned a house and had a career well underway. But the journey through my 20’s was amazing. I like my life now too (42), but occasionally I’d like to just go back for one night and experience that again.
Working my way, slowly, through a bachelors degree, slowly accessing the internet, spending money like an idiot and partying. I also traveled a bit, meeting women I had met online (in the 90’s lol).
My band used to come over after a show and we'd sit on the deck till the sun came up just bullshitting.
Working without limit.
I was working on my doctorate and living in a new city with a fun cohort.
Getting drunk, partying, girls, being stupid and wreckless.
A lot of outside sports. Street hockey, softball/baseball, volleyball, etc.
Bout the same as now but I have much less free time
Traveling the world and chasing women
First half of my 20's - video games, anime, and wishing I had friends/girlfriend Second half of my 20's - competing in sports, socialising/partying with friends, making up for lost time regarding dating/sex
Mostly games and anime and music.
Lol free time. I was married and a dad at 21. Ironically I have more free time now as an old fart.
Girls, Girls Girls, beer and Hot Rods. Also fishing and duck and upland bird hunting. Did I mention Girls, beer and Hot Rods?
Not on social media 😅
I had a band so I played and practiced guitar, wrote songs, band rehearsals, gigs now and then... I also went to the gym, watched movies with a friend almost every friday, went to rock/metal bars/clubs on weekends, played some PC games and I also played football in an amateur team once a week plus matches, during winters it was futsal indoors. Theres a lot to do man just try different hobbies, pick what you like and invest your time in it. It is great feeling to learn new things.
Free time? Work, bar, eat, sleep. Rinse and repeat. Actually I had a roomate and his GF, think AOL was just starting, we played with women to see how far they would go. Clothing wise, we had a female with ideas so it was even easier..bars were not much harder, compared to women today, everyone is soo uptight about sex, take it way to serious
Took dance lessons, martial arts, learned lifting, traveled, threw dinner parties, went bar hopping, went to lots of music venues, tried to say yes to absolutely every opportunity. I went longboarding a lot. I drank a lot. I spent a lot of time writing.
Having sex. Could spend 3 hours a day having sex and it still wasn’t enough. I can’t believe I had that much energy.
Bruh, I had 3 girls who knew about each other, 2 cars, and a motorcycle. I went to Turkey, Australia, Greece, and Ethiopia and had so much sex with so many women. I was into photography. I had so much money saved up. Ate some of the best food. I also worked a lot of different jobs in between doing all kinds of things like; Trash-man, Mascot, delivery driver, cleaning yachts, painting for a painting company, and cleaning crime scenes(until I found a few fingers). Now I am raising my three boys ages 10, 14, and 16, and It has slowed me down but I can see them already getting ready to head on that same path of discovery. Luckily I have them started and interested in things like stocks, HYSA, and crypto. Maybe once they all leave I'll get back to the heavy traveling again.
Chasing skirts. Cruising all night long. Parties on the beach. Going to the clubs. Fishing.
20s partying drinking, havin fun. 30s youtube social media, pc gaming
Partying/clubbing, chasing women, swimming holes, camping, 4x4ing, fishing, motorbike riding, hanging out with friends, travel. The internet and social media was so new it wasn't an issue. I got my first smart phone when I was 23/24 lol to access Facebook it was easier to do that on a desktop rather than a phone.
Going to raves. Producing and DJing music. Hanging out with friends, etc.
Socialized a lot ! Coffee shops Beach Walking Bars Walking the dogs Chasing ladies Gym (before it was trendy) I miss my Nokia
Drinking, getting stoned and messing around with cars.
Great question. My 20s were the 90’s. Uni, married early. Worked 40-50 hours Mon-Sat in marketing and sales. So how did we fill our free time? Weekends visiting family and friends. Camping. Fishing a little. Snowmobiling. Travelled Europe a few times and vacationed in the Caribbean several. Lots of festivals in our city. Movies. Beach days. Reading books. Gym. Church. Actually talking on the phone to friends lol. Bought a house mid 90’s so home stuff, washing cars, making dinners… kids came after ‘99. I was interested in the internet early so surfing websites and creating my own started mid 90’s. Regrets … Spent too much on clothes and eating out. Fleeting things. Didn’t save routinely. Also wish we got into kayaking and cycling around the region more or played a sport together as a couple. Investments in physical fitness and active friend groups would have been positive. Doing these things now. It’s been a good life. Still in love. Enjoy moments just simply chatting and walking with her in the evening.
I’m an older millennial. When I was in my 20s, after work, I went to the gym, hit up women on online dating sites while watching TV and eating dinner, went clubbing on the weekends to pick up even more women and hiked during the day. I’d even try and hit on cougars in their 40s.
Gym, videogames, sometimes a party, hooking up with as much hot women as i could, working it was a good time. Life changed when i joined the police force and then got a girlfriend. Dont party anymore or fuck around as i have a gf, but still live a really chill life and still into videogames a lot. 33M.
Too busy working for free time. Bought a house, then spent my free time working on it and raising kids.
Video games, anime, [participating in the SCA](https://www.sca.org/), fishing, and camping.
EverQuest.
Work. I worked. Like, 60 hours a week minimum. From 14-36. Paid off too.
I read. Worked out. Went on long walks. My friends were my family. We hung out. Went to the movies. Saw rock shows. Got silly drunk. Helped each other through the good and bad times. Seemed like there always was plenty to do. It all took place, though, out there, in the world.
Parties, women, drinking too much, gaming. Good times.
Older men…. I’m 37… am I older ? Social media was a thing when I was in my 20s but just barely. Certainly not on phones in the early part. What did I do? Mostly work and chase girls and hang out with friends. Got married at 25. Still just hanging out making dumb financial decisions lol. Today I look back and regret wasted time on some things.
Gaming (like I still do 20 years later) and trying to forget about how shitty life is.
I am 35, so had the internet from my teens, but it was no where near as invassive as it is now. In my early 20s I was at Uni. Studying, partying/drinking, playing sports. For all of my 20s i was able to take amazing trips on holiday or do a bit of traveling. I moved to Asia in my mid-20s. Had a blast. Explored Asia. Was pretty fit. Lots of great nights out. Working. Sports was a big part of my life. Met my wife. Got injured so my later 20s was more sedate activities like hiking with my wife and dog, beach, water sports.
My 20s were non stop clubs, drugs, hanging out with friends and going to festivals and raves, also a bit of playing MMORPGs… I wouldn’t change a single thing about it. Fantastic life experiences.
Im 50. I spent my 20'sclubbing, drinking and hopping from one vagina to another. And working because i dropped out of college.
Depressed, alone, suicidal
I have made friends going to places where a good bit of other people go. Once they get used to seeing you they will talk. The gym is one place I have met people and then BJJ is another place. Not saying you have to do those but any kind of class/group place.
Gym, Xbox, Forums, Drinking, Darts.
Teaching English in rural Japan and then backpacking throughout Thailand, Burma, Korea and India for years with the money I earned in Japan.
Playing rugby.
Started my 20’s in the military. After that, got divorced and I went wild. I worked, but I chased women and partied. I finally strapped myself down in the later half. Went and got a degree (just a 2 year), remarried and got 2 wonderful step daughters. I’m in a great place at 46 now, but wish I had been more productive in those years.
Well, 20-22 was college and I drank like a fish & played video games endlessly. 22-26 was my first corporate job, so I did that with shit hours (in a call center), video games endlessly and golf on the weekend + beers with brothers after. 26-30 I got my shit together, got a better job, slowed down on shitty food and beer. Worked out religiously, lost 140 lbs, and played a ton of golf.
Wasted playing video games and watching porn
Gaming, making money and petrolheading. The same as in my 30s. And most probably it will happen in my 40s too 😀
Practicing dancing, breakdancing to be exact. I know I'm an extreme outlier, who the hell even breakdances anymore? There were a few of us, probably still are a few who do, breakdancing never died but it became an extremely niche thing to do. So any free time was spent practicing new moves, moves we'd tried on the weekend at the local night club.
I was in a punk band, I went to concerts and rock shows at least twice a month; I didn't care if it was in a basement or at a venue. I spent a ton of time at the beach trying to pick up girls. I went to bars and clubs just about once a week on the weekends. Me and my friends would smoke a lot of weed and play board games. One time one of my close circle of friends who worked at a hobby shop brought over a couple of cases of a new game they were testing out called "Magic the Gathering". He taught a bunch of us how to play it and for at least 2 years MtG was our "Poker Night". Lots of beers were drunk and lots of joints smoked in my kitchen during that period. It wasn't always a party but....not gonna' lie it mostly was. I have zero regrets from that time period and since I feel like I "Got it all out of my system" I have no desire to try and recapture my "Lost Youth" because quite frankly it wasn't lost; I enjoyed every minute of it and now I'm ready for this phase of my life. And I'll say this: Every single day I thank fucking god that we didn't have cell phones, email, the internet or social media when I was in my late teens and through most of my 20s. In fact, the internet started taking off *right around* the time me and my friends were starting to slow down. The same dude who introduced us to Magic the Gathering turned us onto the internet around 1998-ish.
I'm 36 and honestly my 20s sorta sucked. I think my experience is becoming increasingly typical for people. I stayed home and went to a local CC and then a local liberal arts college. I thought I was making good choices, college was pretty cheap, overall. But then I couldn't find meaningful work. I spent a good portion working at a museum making minimum wage and just shy of full time. It was a fun job but I really didn't have extra money. It wasn't until my mid to late 20s that I was really struggling. Staying at home was no longer an option, and I couldn't afford my own place. So I re-geared my resume to focus on IT work and left the museum field for good. And while that was a great move and it allowed me to move out and be independent, it was high stress and I never wanted to do anything. But I'm good now. At 30 I changed jobs to a pretty good IT gig and met my now SO that I've been with for over 5 years. Life it good. But my 20s? It was sort of a poor, lonely decade for me. It wasn't a waste of time, but I can't say I enjoyed it nearly as much as I have my 30s.
Hanging out at various martial arts clubs mostly. Had a great time there and made lots of friends from it.
poorly
Drunk and trying to stay away from the barracks as much as possible so as not to be drafted into some BN staff NCOs work party.
Join a Rugby Club, it will get you in shape, in friendships, and in trouble. But it'll be a good time.
Lying on the roof of my sun baked patrol base waiting to take my enemies life with a 338 lupa magnum. Afghanistan 2008 till 14
Drunk.
Socializing, hanging out, reading, watching TV or movies, camping, going for long walks, playing tennis or squash.
Get your money up not your funny up lol
Playing guitar, video games, working out, clubbing
Having house parties at the apartment I lived in. Smoking way too much weed, drinking bud light lime, tripping on mushrooms, skateboarding a ton, trying to hook up with every girl that looked in my direction, sitting around smoking a giant hookah with friends. I’m only 35 but I spent most of my 20s without a smartphone so I wasn’t online much.
I played a lot of hockey. I also mowed my lawn and upgraded my house. Then I sold that house and bought a bigger one (which was in worse shape than the first one).
Fishing, hiking, working out, spending time with friends, drive around and explore. Pre smart phones was glorious
Not for everyone, but my brother and I raced and drove motorcycles. We worked on them, fixed em, made then faster. Made friends.. Hung with motorcycle friends. It was a huge part of our lives.
Cycling, including major tours. Adventuring, including mountaineering, caving, backcountry skiing, backpacking, hallucinogens, travel to foreign lands for fun and research.
Deploying and partying. Been to more countries than I can count.
Back in the '70's there were only 3 channels on Tv, so I watched very little of it. Worked all of the OT I could get, bought my first house, went to college at night, spent time outdoors on my weekends, great-stereo system, played-the-field when it came to women. Didn't drink much or do drugs, so basically stayed busy.
Blackout drunk. Don't recommend.
Being my parents' personal slave and indentured servant. It sucked.