sMost people say their 20s were messy. Poor decision-making, coping with substances, thinking you were a fully developed adult, but your brain doesn't finish until you're in your late 20s. It all usually leads to why so many people view their 20s as a time for poor decision-making.
They write:
1. orange_cuse says:
Decided against contributing to my company's matching 401k. Cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars.
2. SystemNovel7112 says:
Beg to be loved.
3. big-bad-bird says:
Worked way too hard and burnt out. Sacrificed family time. Sacrificed health. Need to pace yourself at the age of 20-30.
4. stormscape10x says:
Everyone wants to hear about dumb stuff like driving eight hours to get with someone you liked, only for it to end up being a booty call. However, I think it was my general lack of effort to build good habits like exercise. Your body likes routines, and my routine of gaming for fifteen hours a day was not one I should have cultivated.
5. benderofdemise says:
I wanted to say many things, but I read that someone forgot to eat pizza in Italy. Suddenly my dumbest thing wasn't so dumb, and it even cured my depression. Thanks for all the upvotes and awards, guys!
6. pgraczer says:
Not looking after my teeth.
7. badgirlkayy says:
Not getting help for my depression sooner. Spent the entire first half of my 20s in the darkest place I can imagine, and all I needed to feel better was some meds once a day.
8. HabemusAdDomino says:
I took powerlifting way too seriously. I spent seven years in gyms, for hours every day, skipping every social occasion and holiday. I didn't get as strong as I wanted to. I just got all sorts of physical issues to deal with for the rest of my life now.
9. Vaguely_vacant says:
I was hopelessly addicted to heroin. That led to lots of shenanigans. Robbing summer rentals in the winter was probably the worst of it. I was eventually caught and served time. 14 years clean and living an extremely normal life now.
10. Char10 says:
Moved in with a girlfriend before finding out more about her preferences. We had been dating for a year but I didn’t realize how much of a problem she had sharing until we lived together. We dated for five years and never shared a bedroom, had everything split down the middle including the pantry and fridge, even when it came to spices she insisted on me getting my own.
She hated it when I would be in the same room as her unless it was under 'her terms.' Whenever I asked to make our relationship more of a shared experience I was gaslit into believing I was wrong for not allowing boundaries. She moved out a month ago and I couldn’t believe how quickly my mental health improved simply by not having that toxic influence around anymore.
11.MarmateW says:
Not studying properly. At the time studying for 2-7 years seemed like a life time, but now at 30 I wish I had done it. Don't have the money or flexibility to do it now
12. Blackbeltchicken says:
Drank my way through my entire 20s. After 25 it wasn't really fun anymore but that didn't stop me. Drank for another five years. My 20s are a total blur splattered with some fun times here and there.
But mostly just me running away from things with alcohol. Almost seventeen years later and not one drop. My 30s and 40s are exceptional better.
13. toyotasquad says:
Took a $12k loan to buy a motorcycle. Didn’t want to pay for comprehensive insurance, bike got stolen four months later.
14. damagedone37 says:
Drank and drove. A lot. Never got busted. Quite stupid.
I am now 5 years sober(unrelated). I say this from the bottom of my heart. There are friends, taxis, Uber, Lyft etc….utilize these for yourself.
15. Pugwhip says:
Assumed climbing the corporate ladder is the way to do life.
16. TheStraightishGuy says:
Went to Italy and forget to eat pizza.
17. ochief19 says:
I crashed a golf cart at 29. I was so f*cked up with road rash, both ankles were rolled and f*cked up a one Achilles pretty bad. It took two years for one ankle to feel normal again. Still have a bunch of scarring.
Have never f*cked myself up so bad before. The road rash and treating it all over my body was one of the most painful things I’ve ever dealt with. I am so careful in those things now and honestly just everything in general. Lucky I didn’t hit my head.
18. h3r3andth3r3 says:
In 2007 I was living in Santa Maria Zapotitlan in southern Oaxaca (Mexico) helping out a colleague with his PhD research on the archaeology of the Chontal people. After a few weeks the village council asked us to find the source of a stream that flowed from within a mountain, so they could tap into it as a clean water source.
They said to start at the back end of a large cave about an hour's hike away. We got to the cave, got to the back of it, and saw two small caves honeycombing into the floor that were just large enough for us to crawl into. We brought several headlamps, dust masks, and chalk.
The two of us made our way down these caves, which began honeycombing even more into 3-5 passages per intersection. We drew arrows on the cave walls to help us find our way back. Some parts were large enough to walk through, others narrowed to the point that we had to crawl or shimmy through.
Eventually we lucked out and found a small passage, again enough to crawl down, where we found the stream flowing. Wouldn't you know, we even found some small, intact ceramic disks at the bank of this stream that were used in other contexts to burn incense. The fact that people hundreds or even thousands of years before us did the same thing, and knew where to go given the potential for many dozens of passageways, still blows my mind.
Looking back, there were so many different ways to die and never be found in those caves, and the entire purpose seemed overboard since they could just tap into the stream by running a pipe a hundred feet up the mouth. Ultimately, I suppose we just wanted to survey a cave as archaeologists in the off-chance of finding something.
19. hdrider7511 says:
Got engaged to a horse girl.
20. equalsolstice says:
I cringe when I think how reckless some things I did were, but I remember turning 21 while stationed in Germany, returning from Iraq, going on leave with some buddies, and doing some touring around beautiful Europe. In Prague, we got some drinks, and the place we were staying had open access to its roof; we went up and drank and took in the night view.
We got drunk and sat on the ledge with our feet dangling and joked about how loose and wiggly the bricks we were sitting on were (truly loose) and laughed about how stupid it would be to fall and die in a random street in Prague, better than a random path in Iraq!