I had a shitty childhood, was miserable in my teens, was possibly even more miserable through my 20s. When I was 16 I told myself if I was still as miserable by 30 I would consider ending it there.

Fortunately around 30, after my low point of the pandemic, is where things started to actually fall into place for me - both in terms of external factors and, slowly, internal monologue.

While I still have a lot of mental holdovers from all that time spent in a depressed state, I would generally say I'm sustainably "happy" these days. Something I genuinely thought I would never reach.

To anyone in a bad place right now, just know that if you stick it out, life actually can be surprisingly worthwhile.

Hear, hear! Bigger problems nowadays, but more control over my life to compensate.

There's also something that's really calming about having more life experience? Like back in 2013 I was mortified at the prospect of getting bad grades. Missing assignments was the #1 source of stress in my life, and it was all-consuming at the time.

Now? I know not only did that not matter, but that any given thing that stresses me out that badly has a good chance of ultimately not mattering in the same way.

I listened to an interview with a woman who researched aging and spent time interviewing lots of elderly people. The majority of those interviewed called their 60s the best decade of their life. I also dislike the myth that your youth was your peak and it's all downhill from there. There's good in all times of your life, lean into the experiences that are available at the time and don't worry about how good the past was or how the future might be worse.

I'm depressed as fuck but even I agree. At least I'm responsible for my own things now. The grind can be a bitch but I can invest in my hobbies.

tool bench full of fun power tools

More tools than you can count on your fingers, like 4 or so.

How did the history quiz go?

"The house never was the same after ... that night"

Lightning crackles

The constant variables are the age of the author and audience with whom it resonates, not the specific changes between the two time periods.

People coming of age with the harsh realities of life will lament their loss of childhood until humanity’s final days.

I agree with your sentiment, but a possible evolution is that "the happiest time of your life" has gradually pushed younger. Young adulthood used to be that sweets spot people would be nostalgic about. You had a low skill (and low expectation) job and a cheap apartment. You got paid decently and multiple pathways for upwards mobility were available. Marriage and home ownership were obvious futures for you in the years ahead. You had the freedom of adulthood to make your own choices, without having the weight of the entire rest of your life on your shoulders. Your friends were all in similar situations. Nostalgia was around drinking too much on a beach during sunset or around a campfire in the middle of a forest. Perhaps traveling to distant destinations for simple exploration and adventure in one friend's clapped out (and paid off) car.

Now, as in the meme posted, the "ideal" nostalgia is being under the umbrella of your parents. Your parents roof. Your parents money. You not able to make adult choices for yourself.

I suspect people view their childhood and/or late teens through rose colored glasses, they remember the isolated moments of joy without the surrounding context, I remember being stressed about exams, unsure about the future, unsure of even my own identity, plenty of other concerns, but sure I enjoyed a few sleepovers and gaming sessions with friends but when we're remembering those days fondly it is from a safe perspective knowing all those concerns were resolved in a positive way, a survivorship bias, those that "failed at life", became homelessness/suicide(drugs etc), aren't here to reminisce with us all about the "simpler" times.

People are always determined to be unhappy. Of course there's reasons to be unhappy about the state of the world today but it's not as if 2015 was a gold period of human history either.

On average things were definitely worse in the past. I would definitely not want to live in the 1950s for example.

everything was better when you were 13.

Man, this post started off so well. The first line on my phone is "We were very different ages in 2013, I think, heh. I got laid" but things took a sharp turn starting on the next line.

Breaking a leg is supposed to be good luck though so I'm sure everything turned out fine, right?

Yeah. A lot of nostalgia gets wrapped up in not having responsibility and the cultural markers around that time.

On the plus side, we didn't have bullshit history quizzes to deal with.

Last time a human was happy

FIFY

Ha I'm about to turn 40 and same. I got married in 2013. No one brought any nerf guns. ☹️

Damn! You're in the US?