Hey mates, I’m turning 23 today and wanna know where you guys were at this age, and some advices that you may have for me.
Im the explorer type, wanna travel and know places arround the world. some buddies told me that the 20′ are a time to explore and get risks, and i agree with them. But im afraid that i wont be able to do it till my 30′.
Best wishes. Cheers.
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I was in my second year of graduate school, probably working in lab on a Sunday trying to get ahead for the week. If I had time, I probably went for a bike ride.
Living in my first apartment, working an overnight shift job that basically killed my social life.
I was pretty much working paycheck to paycheck, so not really traveling anywhere till I got more established in my career in my late 20s/30s. Partially my own fault, my parents really pushed me to stay at home so that I could save money to buy a condo or house of my own instead of renting, but I prioritized my independence over financial wellbeing.
I guess this wildly depends on whether or not you plan on having kids, but as someone who decided not to, traveling in my 30s is way better than the trips I took in my 20s.
23 is such a weird number in life. One advice is that there are things you cannot plan and expect to work out. Often that is the case with work, advancement, saving money, and so on. You can try, but leave yourself a few options at all times. Apart from that, life can get shitty and learn to paddle through shit.
Moved 1000 miles across country and made a shit ton of money and formed some bad habits. Savor that age, party it up, get ahead financially and for God’s sake don’t get fat or get addicted to anything.
The US
At sea
Lol at 23 I was first working a job I hated then unemployed for a while. I’m not like a degenerate either I have a really good degree from a really good university it was just during the pandemic
So wherever you are don’t sweat it you’re young. I’m 24 now and shit is a lot better already
My second attempt at college. Dropped out the first time bc I was immature and just wasn’t ready. By 23 I knew more what I wanted from life so it was a much better experience. Graduated at 24, married at 27 and living a pretty great life now.
I was in grad school in Alabama. Extensive travel would have been great, but I was making 20K a year so yeah. I did a lot of exploring in and around the state though
Happy bday dude, I agree this is the time to explore and take some risks whether it’s traveling, fostering personal relationships, or working on your career. I’m 33 and graduated 10 yrs ago. I wish I would’ve moved out of my home state when things started feeling stale, like around my mid 20s but it’s all good, life isn’t perfect and I’m in my exploration phase now! You’ll learn a lot about yourself if you do it solo and it’s always fun meeting new people.
I was in my third college attempt, and it was a so-so year. I’ve never been in a good place mentally, but I was better back then. My bad professional decisions hadn’t backfired yet.
I was divorced, struggling to raise my son alone. Stressed that no woman would want “baggage”. Working full time + in sales. Making $37k /year. I was living paycheck to paycheck. Constantly researching side hustles to give myself options.
I am 23 myself and I go to work and on weekends I like watching movies and just doing fun stuff. I feel like I have a lot of time to do all of the things I want to do in my life still. So I feel like you should try and do whatever it is you want but you still have years to enjoy life and get your life goals sorted.
I had two kids, married, a house, and a third kid on the way. Was working two jobs and coaching sports for my oldest.
20 years later I’m now doing all the fun stuff with the responsibilities accomplished
I was an art director at a design agency. I managed a few younger designers and traveled doing photography, meeting clients and partying.
Living with my fraternity brothers managing a large gym in a big city, finally got a job in my career field (scientist) shortly after. Was a very fun time of my life with a decent income, good new job, lots of pretty ladies, and lots of buddies around 24/7.
Bro, I don’t even know where I am now
I had just started law school. Durham, NC.
Working a boring office job that didn’t pay nearly enough, living with my wife and kid with another on the way.
I was going through a post-college burnout, spending the energy I had on my job and basically going from work to lie in bed at home every day.
In hindsight, this was not all bad. I had money for the first time in my life but saved it/invested it, which should bring a long term benefit.
I was in a community college and nothing of any interest happened
Finished bachelor’s, living at my parents house, working at a Hugo Boss store, looking for a “real” job. Think I found my first professional job as an IT recruiter at 23 or 24. It sucked though.
High, in fact so high I don’t remember chunks of my life. So don’t do that. I didn’t have a lot of money at your age but still managed to go to a lot of gigs and travel the country on the cheap. The job I had provided enough financial stability to do some of the things I wanted to do. My focus was on making social connections and having cool experiences and I largely achieved that. Oh and to try every drug mentioned in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which I did (except for amyls which were impossible to find and adrenochrome which has no psychoactive effects you QAnon fucking weirdos). Again, don’t do that.
Your buddies are wrong, I’m sorry. While sure, people get up to risky stuff in their 20s (you do not fully develop mentally until about 25, on average) that is not set in stone. Instead of taking the path most travelled consider what your priorities are, your needs and wants and passions. You may choose to spend your 20s developing a career and a good financial situation for yourself, or focus on volunteering and trying to make the world around you a better place. It is completely up to you, don’t let others dictate your life choices.
Some of the stuff I couldn’t do in my 20s I finally was able to do in my 30s. Good things are worth waiting for.
I turned 23 days ago quarantine started in my country. It was a dark and depressive time for me.
I think I dropped out of Uni by then.
My advice is to get a job and invest in your 20s
I was pretty busy parenting two four year olds on my own while getting working on my masters degree. I love being a father and four is a fun age but I really didn’t do anything exciting.
My advice to you is to always practice safe sex so you don’t end up a young single father like I did. Also, open a Roth IRA, do finance stuff. Don’t do drugs, don’t drink too much. Stay active, form some hobbies, try to make friends and build a community. Have fun and enjoy being young.
Engaged and “Helping” plan or wedding.
In my parents house, but I started to work. The only interesting thing I did was visiting during a day a bigger city which is 2 hours far from my hometown.
Nothing great, and I turned 24 a couple of months ago.
Aaaand yeah, nobody likes you when you’re 23
23…
I was living northeast China.
I was happy, but I had a horrible lifestyle.
I probably got black out drunk 200 times that year.
I don’t know how I managed to keep my job.
Whatever you prioritize in life, don’t be dumb like me and do stuff in excess. And if you’re spending your off-time with people you really appreciate, it’s actually nice remembering what you did with them the night before.
It’s really easy to justify getting black out drunk around people you love and trust because you feel safe around them, but it’s also nice waking up earlier without a hangover. Allows you to get more out of every day and put your energy into a lot more variety of activities.
Another thing that came with the territory about that lifestyle was the fact that I stopped reading. I didn’t get back into it until a few years before COVID hit and I wish I’d gotten back into reading at a much younger age.
If I’m just hanging out at home, reading calms me down and makes it much easier for me to fall asleep at a reasonable time.
I’m 24, but the big difference between 23 and 24 for me was mental health. I was 23 when I started therapy, and I’m just about finished now, and on to just maintenance. When I was 23, I was working full time at my job, but at a much lower salary. I had a technical diploma in IT and dropped out of college to use that for my career. I lived with my fiancé (then boyfriend), built a stable little nest egg and some credit to prepare to buy instead of renting.
My advice is that if there’s somewhere you want to go, do it now. It’s the easiest when you’re young and unattached, especially if you want kids someday. We don’t, so literally no rush there for us. If you want to try to start your own business or travel, it’s the easiest while you’re still on someone else’s health insurance plan.
Separately, the thing I learned so far in life that I think is most important: If you think there’s something fundamentally wrong with how your brain/thoughts/feelings function, *talk to a therapist and take it seriously*. I wasted a decade feeling horrible because of issues that are manageable with some effort. You’re not broken, you probably just have something to work on.
At 23 I’d just finished my undergraduate degree (September child on a four year course) and was starting to work to save for my master’s degree.
Also, stuff takes time, don’t sweat it too much.
I was in the Navy at the time, so could have been just chilling dockside in Brooklyn, or doing winter amphibious ops in the freezing cold off the coast of Norway.
Advice: Don’t do amphibious ops off the coast of Norway in January. Shits *cold*!!!
The military. Was deployed to Saudi Arabia.
Splitting an affordable apartment (that was impossible to heat in the cold New England winter) with my then-girlfriend, partying every weekend, playing music regularly, not taking my job seriously because fuck it, and thinking every call from my dad or sister would be *the one* (mother was dying of cancer).
I enjoyed it and I’m glad I did it. Only thing I’d change would be what band I was in (as another that ended up going somewhere asked me to play for them a few times) and I’d probably take work a little more seriously.
I had a wife and 3 kids
Working in the oil fields and partying hard on days off.
At University, poor AF and living wiht parents.
High on meth and on my way to prison. My advice: Don’t be like I was.
There’s a very different world back when I was 23. I’ve been out of college for a couple of years working at my first job. Bought my first house for a whopping $58,000 brand new. And started investing in the stock market. Now of course to get my college degree I paid $350 a semester for tuition. Even at minimum wage in only took a few weeks to earn enough to pay for my tuition.
And the only advice I can give is try to find something that you actually enjoy doing and you can make a living at. And also realize that the career that you choose now doesn’t have to be your lifelong career. You can change. So many people start off in a career and think they have to do it forever. You can certainly change.
The only other piece of advice I can give you is watch out for addictions. Seen too many lives destroyed by them. As soon as you have one get help if you can’t quit on your own. They will destroy your life.
I was probably a few months away from overdosing on hard drugs. Fortunately that soon ceased and I finally got my shit together.
Smokin pot n chasin pussy
At the beginning of 23 I was probably in the lowest point of my life. I was in my senior year with no internships due to covid, and with severe depression.
By the time I turned 24 I was in another country living on my own and in an amazing job
I was working a dead end job going nowhere in life
Face first in white powder and bad decisions. Don’t do coke. Best advice I can possibly give, is easily, don’t do coke.
Absolutely explore and take risks, it is the best time to do it. Explore doesn’t necessarily mean travel the world though. People tend to miss all the cool shit around them because they’re not looking. Open your eyes and see what’s all around you. Travel if you can, but never rule out that there might be something awesome, literally and figuratively, right around the corner.
I had just ruined my education by isolating myself and playing an mmo instead of going to class. Had ran out of money and asked my dad for help. He gave me a temp job at a warehouse he was managing.
It got better.
graduating from college without any real idea of what i was going to do. i had a vague idea of what i wanted to do, but the reality is that i wasn’t as determined or as disciplined as i am nowadays.
23 – I was living in Austin working in the semiconductor field. Dating my best friends sister and while by most accounts successful I was completely lost. Never dealt with the grief of loss from my mothers death at 19. Maintained a stoic idealism, a numbness I mistook for strength that didn’t allow me to feel – good or bad. Desperately trying to find meaning. Life was still good in many ways but I did eventually hurt the girl I loved. I changed my life completely at 27. It’s a long story, but let me say where I am now.
I’m 31 sitting in an airport (Bangkok). I quit my engineering job at 30 (14 months ago). I started selling coffee online, started a podcast with my best friend and have been in Thailand for the last 3 months. I’ve learned so much more about myself than I ever knew I could. Life is a wonderful adventure and tragedy is apart of it. Don’t stress too much man. Do the best you can. Learn as much as you can. There’s an infinite reality out there, you just have to perceive it through experience. You’ve got plenty of time to travel and grow, don’t worry about the nay sayers. You can live your life at any point.