do you feel like an adult imposter?

[4bangen]

I'm 40 years old, I'm working a kick ass job, my kid is 17, and my wife still has a great rack. But several times a day I feel like I'm not mature enough for this grown up life. I legit feel like I'm the exact same kid that joined this forum in 2001, and the back of my brain worries people are going to figure it out. lol
does this make sense to any of you dirtbags? or is it just me? Like literally I'll be in a meeting, talking about important things and all I can think about is the same shit I was thinking about at 17.

[Fastlane]

I think that is completely normal. I am 50 and I still think about doing the same dumb shit as I did when I was a teen. I just have the aches, pains, and responsibilities to bring me back to reality. It doesn't always prevent me from following my impulses though.

[ram57ta]

Sounds like a mid-life crisis to me. The solution is to buy a new car, motorcycle, boat or something else that makes no sense but makes you happy.

[Strychnine]

All the time. It's not clinical imposter syndrome, as there's a legit DSM definition of that, but the feeling of not totally having your shit together or wondering if you'll ever feel grown up is a real thing.

[bubbaearl]

Growing old is mandatory, growing up is not.

at 50 i was wide open running it out the back door , at 60 my body put a restrictor plate on my ass, at 70it takes prime and starting fluid just to get me out of bed. believe me your body holds the throttle.

that light at the tunnel is the 4:10 from Yuma.

[scootro]

i don't know how to be a normal grownup! my concern is bills are paid and i got food that's pretty grownup i guess

[Strychnine]

that light at the tunnel is the 4:10 from Yuma.

Forrest told me once, "Beware the light at the end of the tunnel, it might be muzzle flash."

[Tx Redneck]

I have similar thoughts on a regular bases as well at 43.

[Cannon88]

...my wife still has a great rack...

Pics?

But yeah, feel the same. Just in worse shape than 25 years ago.

[lowthreeohz]

I too suffer from (a non-clinical version of) imposter syndrome, but have managed to be more successful than i imagined despite it

[bird_dog0347]

I'm 43, have a great job in corporate america, two boys 15 and 12... I'm not very good at adulting. When people ask me where I grew up I tell them I never did, I got taller and better funded but I'm basically a teenager in my brain even though my body reminds me daily that isn't the case. I don't know if it's normal, but I know you're not alone.

[4bangen]

good to hear this from all you guys. It doesn't help that I peaked at 5'8" and look up when talking to most people. still makes me feel like a kid. I've got a dude that works for me who is like 6'4" I swear it looks like Pinky and the brain when he follows me around to show him what to do next. lol

[Trip McNeely]

I’m a Toys R Us kid.

[jluv]

I often catch myself thinking in terms of "when I grow up". I don't see my inner voice as wise and mature. On paper, maybe, but yes, I feel like I'm just faking it, to an extent. I also think 45-year-olds, in general, are well into adulthood, if not technically "old". I am 45. Sometimes this makes me think of being like 85 and looking at life the same way. Won't that be weird? When are you supposed to just fully realize your true age? Is there an unwritten rule somewhere? I'm afraid one day it will completely flip-flop and I'll feel like I missed my youth and can't get it back. Maybe I'm already there and refuse to admit it. Whoa.

At the same time, I look at kids in their 20s with their good knees and their endless energy and their overall lack of REAL stress, and see them jump off of stuff or party late into the night, and I think about how I view their youth and how they must think I'm old. Then I realize the 85-year-olds must see us in our 40s and think something similar. It gets real weird when I think about how every one of these old folks used to be a kid, a teen, a 20-something. Maybe they were reckless and wild. Is that youngster still around somewhere inside of them? It almost makes me want to approach kids in their 20s and make them sit and think for a second about how every old person they see was once young, and how (if they're lucky), they will be an old person one day, too, looking back at other youngsters. It's odd being in the middle and seeing it both ways.

What's really trippy is to realize how much FASTER aging is coming at us. It's exponential, in a way (I'm sure there's a better word for it.) It's like compound interest. For example, when you go from your 4th birthday to your 5th, that year seemingly takes forever. Of course - it's 20% of your whole life! But at age 75, another year is not even 1.5% of your life. It flies by. It's the same amount of days/time, but such a small portion of what you've lived, that it becomes less and less significant. And the more time that passes, the smaller that amount of time is in proportion. That's a damned buzzkill.

Ugh. Life is fleeting. And weird.

EDIT: Having kids changes a lot, too, in my opinion. And just to keep with the "depressing thoughts you can't unthink" theme (Sorry for taking it there!)... I had my kid at 41. Even if I pretend that really old giant people are a thing, there's still zero chance I'll see or know my daughter when she's a senior citizen. Maybe 50 if I'm super lucky, but I wouldn't bet on that. And she'll have to watch me and her mother get ancient and wrinkly and then lose us? FUCK! I don't want that sadness for her.

Pass the celery. I'm going for a walk.

[JC316]

Oh this is definitely me, but not much has actually changed for since i was in my 20's. Still single, no kids, no real responsibilities.