Oh to be 23 years old again - or not?

[stephec]

4 minute mile, all my hair, indestructible. Yep, I'd go back in a heartbeat, but onky if I can keep all the wisdom and knowledge that I have acquired until now.

Are you sure that's wise? 😂

 

[Beebo]

Im not sure i would want to be 23 in 2023, it’s a difficult landscape to manage, but i wouldnt mind going back to the late 90s again, when life was far simple.

24 hour Social media, smart phones and pressure to keep up with the Jones’s.
plus zero hour contracts, price of housing etc.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

As always it depends. Are you the same 23 year old transported from many decades ago to 2023 with no knowledge of mobile phones , or the web, do you think the Berlin Wall is still intact or we are in the EU?

 

[a.twiddler]

4 minute mile, all my hair, indestructible. Yep, I'd go back in a heartbeat, but onky if I can keep all the wisdom and knowledge that I have acquired until now.

I would add to that some of the luck and near misses that have kept me alive and reasonably healthy up to now. Sometimes just due to being in the right place at the right time, or not being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Of course you only realise all that in hindsight. If it became a Groundhog Day experience you could gradually improve on it each time. I can imagine waking up in my narrow RAF bed on that day that I was due to start my terminal leave and become a civilian again as a 23 year old, and it all unfolding from there.

 

[StuAff]

23? Nope. Groundhog Day -er- period- for December 2016 & January 2017: yes please.

 

[Salad Dodger]

I got married at 22 and we bought our first house.
At 23 we moved to a much better house. I was involved in running a car club, so we marshalled lots of rallies and a few race meetings. We had good friends in the car club. It was all good.

But work was demanding and involved long hours of commuting.

Mrs Salad has stuck with me through thick (me) and thin (neither of us!). I am a lucky guy......

 

[Ripple]

Yeah, why not? It was a cr*p year but at the age of 23 I started living my own life instead of the life that my mum/grandma wanted me to live. Loads of adventures awaited!

 

[FrankCrank]

I was 23 in 1984, and it was one of my favourite years. One highlight was going out to the USA on a work assignment for a couple of months that summer. This was during my ‘engineering’ days, and at the time I was working for Foster Wheeler, in the automated welding field. Anyways, the time in Rockford, Illinois was an eye opener for sure, and I shamefully have to admit I was reluctant to go, the boss having persuaded me and offered a pay rise as enticement. My wanderlust streak clearly wasn’t established yet!

This was also the year of the Olympics in the US, and McDonald's were offering vouchers with each meal, allowing you to claim a free drink, fries or burger, depending on the US getting a bronze, silver or gold. So, with Russia having pulled out, and so many medals going to the hosts, we practically lived on a free ‘American’ diet.

All happy days looking back, fond memories indeed.

 

[bikingdad90]

Not sure I am worthy of posting in this thread as it’s only a decade ago for me. Will have been married two years, saving for a house, small baby in the house and sitting my final three accountancy exams. I can remember the 2am joy of waking up and finding out I had passed my ethics exam with 51 out of 100 and didn’t need to resit all three again. At the time it was pass all three or fail them and resit the lot even if 2/3 were passed.

I was also fat?! Having got a promotion I wasn’t cycling to work anymore and I wasn’t cycling due to new born and lots of studying.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Not so much 23 - If I could go back knowing what I know now I think I'd go back to being younger still... Sod the hormones and so on (not that I particularly remember them being a massive issue for me anyway).

If you went back to whatever year you wanted to, knowing what you know now, just think of all the fun you could have, do and say the things you were meant to do and maybe solve some mysteries after all these years... But on the other hand... It could get a bit tedious if you were too young, like a little kid.

As always it depends. Are you the same 23 year old transported from many decades ago to 2023 with no knowledge of mobile phones , or the web, do you think the Berlin Wall is still intact or we are in the EU?

Or that that Mr Saville, Glitter and Harris were all top blokes? 😆

I started living my own life instead of the life that my mum/grandma wanted me to live.

Well, yes, that's also an issue, but if you went back, knowing what you know now, you'd be able to navigate yourself out of it a lot better and possibly tell them where to stick it as well! 😆

 

[cookiemonster]

Yes. I wouldn't mind being 23 again.

I was working, studying, travelling, and sha%%ing my way around Europe.

Fun times, in more ways than you can imagine.

And made many great friends who I'm still in contact with to this day.

 

[cookiemonster]

I'd love to be 33 again. My 30s were fab.

My 30s were awesome too. I found out what I wanted to do in life and worked with that.

 

[cougie uk]

@DCLane in another thread referred to being 23. Assuming you are over that age would you like to be back at that age? Or not?

No picking and choosing - you can't have a 23 year old heart and legs without the hormones and (in my case at least) stupidity.

I don't think I want to go through the heartaches, anxieties and pain again, so I think I'll stay here.

23 today sounds hard. My house cost buttons back then. Kids today are going to be a lot poorer if they want to buy a house compared to their parents.

 

[Fastpedaller]

It's weird - but I guess these things have always been that way? ......... At 23 (in the back of our minds) we were indestructible, nothing was going to go wrong. When we passed 50, any pain was a niggling doubt that it could be a heart attack! Now as I approach 65 the thought inside is ...... oh well if it is, so be it.

 

[Accy cyclist]

I officially retire at 66 years, 3 months. Imagine being 43 long years off a bus pass, 10 percent off at B&Q and a pensioners discount Accrington Stanley season ticket! Who'd want to be 23 again eh!!