What's your age, and what are you currently most concerned about?

[inactive123]

Turning 22 at the end of this month.

Currently I'm concerned about my upcoming trip to Australia. The trip will be for a year and the reason for going is to spend time with my dad and other family on that side since I haven't seen most of them for 4/5 years. It's an awesome opportunity to travel and I'm excited for it but I also have two main concerns about going.

Firstly, I've been in a stable relationship going on 2 years and going to Australia will mean doing long-distance for a year. My concern here is obviously that we won't cope with the long-distance.

Secondly concern is the fact that I am quite terrible at making new friends without some support from existing friends. This will force me out of my comfort zone and while that might be good for me I'm still scared I fail miserably at making friends.

 

[Random Encounter]

20 and not a clue with what I want to do with my life.

After year ten I moved to a different school and didn't cope well with the transition. After just not going for a number of weeks I ended up dropping out. I tried a High School Equivalency Certificate but I simply lacked interest in the subjects I had chosen and didn't have the ambition to finish the year. It was after this that I decided just to get a job for the time being until I can sort my life out.

I also ended up losing contact with all my old friends in the process, which is a shame because I'm getting lonely and really wish I had someone to talk and hang out with. I considered reconnecting with them again but I'm too embarrassed to admit that over the last four years the only thing I've accomplished is acquiring a part-time job.

 

[Rooster893]

17, will be 18 in four months.

Concerned about: Graduating. I have this senior project, 2 very difficult essays to do for English, a giant math test (since I failed math four years ago in freshman year) and I have to present said senior project. I'm also worried about my physical health, such as weight loss (and other things I won't mention). I'm not morbidly obese, but I know a lot of insecurities and worries that I have would be very downplayed if I trimmed the fat, so to speak.

 

[ultrabiome]

I'm 30, living in the eastern US.

Concerns:
My parents: my mother recently lost her barely-above-minimum-wage job of 30 years due to medical issues, my father hasn't had a job in 10 years and is too proud to get a real job. They had to move onto my grandmother's property this year and I see no hope in them becoming any more financially stable (besides disability and social security - and they'll be able to live there as long as the property taxes are paid). At least my father grows a large garden and is a good fix-it guy, otherwise I'd really hate him.

My wife: been trying to get my wife pregnant for a few years (she just turned 33), finally a ray of hope with a very minor miscarriage (it sounds weird, but at least our parts work, if you get my drift). Concerned about where we are going to raise said child(ren) as both of our families are on the west coast and we live on the east. Concerned with her becoming her mother and if we can stand each others' habits long term (she's a clean freak and I play too much video games for her taste sometimes); we love each other, but we can seriously frustrate each other sometimes.

My job: my awesome degrees got me a job I like (S.B. Math, M.S. Optical Sciences), but it's on the wrong coast and its a gov't job, so I could make more $$ going private at the cost of doing bitchier, less fulfilling work. Also with how the U.S. gov't is acting towards budgets... I really don't like the long-term reduction in my purchasing power. I also don't want to let down my current co-workers by leaving - I'm becoming more involved and respected and essentially an expert at certain things now, I won't have that at another job right away. But right now we are also riding a fine line of living within our means - a couple nights out or a vacation can push us to the other side. I guess at least I have a job that pays the bills, and I'm lucky my wife does too.

My health: my back isn't quite straight and I am terrible at keeping up with regular exercise - which I should do to strengthen and straighten it. I have a small tumor on one of my kidneys (they think it's benign... hopefully it is). And my teeth - will need a crown, maybe a root canal soon . I see cracks in a few other teeth and I think this is just the beginning of a lifetime of even more dental work.

*end of concerns

I don't know who'll actually read to this point, but to those of you who worry about meeting women and losing your virginity until late... I didn't lose my virginity until 25 (and that's with college and grad school in party environments), and I realized that you just have to put yourself out there. Do whatever you can to meet people (dating sites, going to parties/events, meeting friends at bars) and practice talking to women, IN PERSON if possible, and eventually you might realize half of the battle is learning body language and just how to interact comfortably with them (what to talk about/what not to, listening to her, how to be proud w/o being an asshole, etc.). Get friends to help you out or just strike up a conversation. Just don't give up - it will happen when you aren't paying attention or least expect it.

Eventually you realize you went somewhere and were talking with the same cute girl for an hour or two comfortably and she might just lead you away. Or at least you might exchange numbers. There is hope, but you can't have any relationship without two people, so learn to interact with them (they want it too). Just be (mostly) yourself. Best of luck.

 

[Denny Crane]

I recently turned 30 and my biggest fear is the fact that my country is being run by a bunch of bigots who think it's alright to lock up fellow human beings for the sake of "sovereignty".

 

[DementedSheep]

22, dying of cancer, having spent thousands on course that my lead to a career I may not like or forces me to work with people I don't like (likely at this point), passing said course, debt from said course, job market and being unable to afford to move out of home so still leeching off parents.

 

[Pinkamena]

22 here. Wondering what the fuck I'm gonna do when I finish my master in particle physics.

 

[carnex]

37. I'm mostly worried how am I to support my family since this job is likely coming to the end and I don't have next one ready.

That and the fact that world is going down the drain compared to my ideals.

 

[Denny Crane]

22 here. Wondering what the fuck I'm gonna do when I finish my master in particle physics.

Make lots of monies?

 

[Seydaman]

18, start college as a philosophy major in September, I'm happy about that

But I'm concerned about several upcoming surgeries and if I'll be able to make friends (and romantic interests) after I start college, also concerned about the work load and stress from college, but less so

 

[Stu35]

What's your age, and what are you currently most concerned about?

27.

Can Castleford overcome St. Helens in tonights top-of-the-table clash at Wheldon Road? I don't know, probably not, but I'm going to be colossally drunk and obnoxious by the time I get to the ground so by full time it probably won't matter.

 

[SnakeTrousers]

21

What am I going to do when my luck finally runs out and the conditions that have allowed me to get by on the bare minimum of effort collapse? Will it finally break the cycle of apathy and self-loathing or I will I collapse as well?

And why the fuck should anyone else give a desiccated rat shit?

 

[Angelblaze]

I'm 19, existential crisis all over the place. Scared of the future. Being lonely, being overcrowded, never being able to express myself, growing old. I feel so vain for placing self-expression on that list, but god, it just seems to matter to me so much, and it drives me insane seeing people with fantastic talents and a great life on top of them. I know it's really scummy, but...well, I don't really know how I can excuse it. It's not hatred, mind you it's just a sort of jealousy mixed with admiration that results in frustration thanks to my overall lack of self-worth.

Summation of my rambling: 19, concerned with life in general. Not going anywhere at the current rate, feeling broken for being unable(????) to do anything about it.

17, same here.

Short answer though, just about everything.
Warning, everything I have placed in this spoiler is pointless, whiny drama. Probably. The internet has blurred my vision between what's 'crying over nothing' and what's 'pathetic' and what is deemed 'okay' to feel.

Great.

Spoiler

I'm a writer that has SAD (yes, that's an actual disorder. Seasonal Affective Disorder) and switches in-between writing and art, it seems like the only times I can write 'well' is during the winter months...

And I want to be a novelist.

Plus I can't draw how I want to, none of my art looks like how I want it to look, I feel pathetic and shitty at just about every artistic thing I try to do, especially when I look back in retrospect and point out all the inconsistency therein. I'm incredibly jealous of people like Sakimichan and a bunch of different fan-fiction writers who seem to pump out thousands of words a day and it comes out like its fucking perfect. But moreso of Sakimichan (google her, facebook her, w/e, her art is perfect and I wish her all the best but yeah, a little jelly) because I have this horrible, horrible problem of needing to see my character the exact way I see them in my head, animated and alive and if not in a beautiful artistic way (I blame my love of Miyazaki in my younger age), but I can't fucking draw/paint. At all. Not even in the 'anime' style I've been practicing for two-three years now. I'm godawful at in comparison to my inspirations for loving the craft...

In addition, I'm a single girl whose been home schooled their entire life basically, I have no friends and I feel paranoid as hell because ever since I was little people have been trying to either snatch me (around 4 kidnapping attempts around my 8-13 years of age.) or keep me locked up in the house so I can't do anything, and sent me mixed messages that leave me so confused its like reading a typed political rant made by someone with eight different personalities. (Mom complains about me being lazy, doesn't want me to get a job or bugs me when I exercise even when I make it clear I don't want to talk.)

I feel extremely bitter and angry sometimes about things I can't do anything about, to the point of thoughts of physical violence. I'm concerned about things like dying young, dying a virgin without someone to love, dying without getting all the stories and fantasies out of my head first, living a shitty life, being forgotten like a broken part in a machine after I'm dead, but I can't 'cry' either because after all, cry is for wussies right? The only time I really let myself cry is when the Thanatophobia hits - and then its for two or three nights in a row before I'm able to calm down, but I only cry in the dark.

What really sucks though is, thanks to what I believe could be my own fault, I've built a persona that makes it okay to 'bother' me when I'm upset or sad, like my parents don't understand how I could cry or get angry. They expect (Iron Man 1 only) Tony Stark levels of snark and rudeness from me 24/7 because I've built that up through the years and played it up because...it was funny at the time but now, with the state I'm in right now as I'm typing this I want to cry and kill the world.

I'm in a special program in my school that gives me a scholarship if I pass with high marks, since I'm so smart, but I'm terrified that I'm going to get that scholarship, appear at some kind of test to prove that I learned what the school says I learned and then flunk it and all that hard work goes straight down the drain.

Even better, I have no idea what I'm going to get my degree in because to be honest, I love writing but I can't see myself making a living off of what I'm making now in life. I need more practice, more of a fanbase, more word choice and a much large vocabulary that could take years to learn and correctly place into my work. So I'm considering Business Management or just plain Business since I hear its easy and I've done Microeconomic college work before with my mom's college book.

I'm concerned that my horrible sense of hygiene is going to kill me. Really I should be taking a shower - its nearly midnight and I don't even remember when I last bathed. This sucks.

Great. Now I feel like one of those over the top girls who exaggerate every problem they see. Perfect. This thread is awesome. Can I get some anxiety to go please?

Non-pg13 under the mark...

Spoiler

And I have an extremely twisted view of sex I think, thanks to porn, erotica and my mother's constant annoyance of me... So that's great. I want a man that I KNOW, logically, literally cannot exist. I know every facet and thing about him, I know his favorite color, I know how he likes his hair and his eggs, I know what his laugh is like down to the decibel - I even fucking named this sonovabitch who doesn't exist. (And now I'm concerned I'm crazy. Great.) It hurts to think that I'm actually so greedy to even hope that I'll actually just find him one day, walking around looking for me like some twilight-style fairy tale. I'm concerned that I'm never going to meet 'him' and that he really will exist. It hurts to think that he might just exist and I'm just freaking out over nothing, only to end up with him being interested in someone else or with a 'preference' that doesn't align with mine, or being everything I've ever wanted and me just not being in the right place or time to meet him, only to see it years later and realize the horrible mistake I made.

I'm terrified that I'm going to be sexually inadequate compared to all the other girls who've been having sex since ages like 14, 15, 16, I'm afraid that I will eventually be raped by someone I trust (I have a grandfather who is a known pedophile and raped my FAVORITE aunt when she was younger. She's an alcoholic, depressed, angry, cynic now, but I love her.) and then no one will believe me or care because, hey, just another little girl who had sex, changed her mind halfway through and is now just crying rape.

It is less of an uncommon story then you think.