Anyone else read old threads here and get sad?

[typefitter]

I was just looking at an old thread here, from 2008—11 years ago!—and it made me all kinds of sad. I feel like ****ing Holden Caulfield. I couldn't help thinking about who we've lost since then, and how much life and the world has changed. I was married then, with a two-year-old and a new baby. Now I'm divorced with a 13-year-old and an 11-year-old. I have a different job, and a different house. I'm the same person in some ways but also kind of busted-up in other ways. Maybe I'm better in a few small ways, and my life is mostly very good, but still... Reading who we all were back then, and who isn't here anymore, it honestly kind of choked me up a little. It was like going back in time for a second and seeing you and your friends as younger and more hopeful, like Richard Dreyfuss writing those last few sentences at the end of Stand By Me.

I'm wondering if I'm losing my mind.

 

[CD Boogie]

I was just looking at an old thread here, from 2008—11 years ago!—and it made me all kinds of sad. I feel like ****ing Holden Caulfield. I couldn't help thinking about who we've lost since then, and how much life and the world has changed. I was married then, with a two-year-old and a new baby. Now I'm divorced with a 13-year-old and an 11-year-old. I have a different job, and a different house. I'm the same person in some ways but also kind of busted-up in other ways. Maybe I'm better in a few small ways, and my life is mostly very good, but still... Reading who we all were back then, and who isn't here anymore, it honestly kind of choked me up a little. It was like going back in time for a second and seeing you and your friends as younger and more hopeful, like Richard Dreyfuss writing those last few sentences at the end of Stand By Me.

I'm wondering if I'm losing my mind.

Not losing your mind, but most likely having a midlife crisis. You’re not alone. I’m not looking to bang twentysomethings or buy a motorcycle or a sports car. But more and more I think of where I am age wise relative to my father back in the day and it helps light a fire under my ass.

I have certain life goals I must achieve for the sake of my piece of mind, and one is finishing this novel I’m working on. Just started second draft yesterday so I imagine going into hibernation for a spell. It’s not about its succsss, though that would be great. It’s that I might be holding the one good to great idea for a creative endeavor that I will ever have in my life and I can’t waste it. But I’m my own worst enemy and lean toward self destruction so it’s possible it won’t ever come off.

I always wanted to have my first novel published by the age of 35, same as Kerouac was when On the was pubbed. That was 11 years ago.

Thanks, now I’m ****ing hating myself.

 

[Moderator1]

But we also have good new contributors who weren't here then. Hell, 2008, the year I left newspapers. Happily (I thought) married. Two kids finishing up college. If you had told me in six years time I'd be moving to New York I would have laughed like hell.

Now I'm five years into living in this area, no longer married, under 200 pounds for the first time in 30 years and happy af. And a grandfather, which contributes a lot to my being happy af.

**** happens. Things change. People come. People go. It's life.

 

[Moderator1]

And 2008 was the year my dog was born, on the same day we elected Obama the first time (HEY NO POLITICS ASSHOLE). We almost named her Barry O before settling on Ella.

 

[typefitter]

Not losing your mind, but most likely having a midlife crisis. You’re not alone. I’m not looking to bang twentysomethings or buy a motorcycle or a sports car. But more and more I think of where I am age wise relative to my father back in the day and it helps light a fire under my ass.

I have certain life goals I must achieve for the sake of my piece of mind, and one is finishing this novel I’m working on. Just started second draft yesterday so I imagine going into hibernation for a spell. It’s not about its succsss, though that would be great. It’s that I might be holding the one good to great idea for a creative endeavor that I will ever have in my life and I can’t waste it. But I’m my own worst enemy and lean toward self destruction so it’s possible it won’t ever come off.

I always wanted to have my first novel published by the age of 35, same as Kerouac was when On the was pubbed. That was 11 years ago.

Thanks, now I’m ****ing hating myself.

Sorry, buddy. I really, really hope you write your novel, it gets published, and I get to read it one day.

 

[britwrit]

I always wanted to have my first novel published by the age of 35, same as Kerouac was when On the was pubbed. That was 11 years ago.

On the other hand, Kerouac had drank himself to death by 47, living in suburban Florida. With his mother.

So, wherever you are right now, you're way ahead of that particular game.

 

[CD Boogie]

On the other hand, Kerouac had drank himself to death by 47, living in suburban Florida. With his mother.

So, wherever you are right now, you're way ahead of that particular game.

I'll be 47 next year, so I still got time...

 

[outofplace]

I don't really look at old threads here except to try to find something that was particularly amusing. As Moddy said, people here come and go.

I do occasionally think about the event that brought me here, which was a particularly frustrating point in my journalism career. Given that it sent me on a path to an entirely different career which has been better for me in every possible way, no matter how angry I was at the time, it has been nothing but good.

I am actually celebrating a significant milestone in my new career tonight, so no, definitely not sad at all.

 

[Batman]

I'll be 47 next year, so I still got time...

 

[CD Boogie]

I am actually celebrating a significant milestone in my new career tonight, so no, definitely not sad at all.

Well don't leave us guessing. How many johns are you up to?

 

[Regan MacNeil]

Well don't leave us guessing. How many johns are you up to?

 

[outofplace]

CD's got some very disturbing fantasies about me.

 

[WriteThinking]

I always looked at, and even purposely looked up, old threads and posts (of my own, and other people's, that I liked and thought were good) quite often. Until the search function broke...:).

 

[Scout]

At 49, I'm much more secure and confident with where my life is headed. I've been married for well over 10 years now, and I am happy.

I'm honestly starting to look forward to retiring in 10 years or so and starting something else. I'm not striving to do more, more, and more. We are financially good and a lot wiser with our money.

What's really funny is, I don't want more and more stuff. I'm happy with what I have. That's a huge change. Maybe it's maturing late?

I'm also saying good bye to aunts and uncles. Friends are getting divorced and a few are getting sick. I can also bet folding money on the ones who are cheating on their spouses.

 

[micropolitan guy]

 

[swingline]

Maybe not old threads, but definitely old emails.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

And 2008 was the year my dog was born, on the same day we elected Obama the first time (HEY NO POLITICS ASSHOLE). We almost named her Barry O before settling on Ella.

Good thing you didn’t. You’d be getting asked why you named her after a wrestler.

 

[Sea Bass]

Good thing you didn’t. You’d be getting asked why you named her after a wrestler.

Pat Patterson just got wood and doesn’t know why.

 

[DanOregon]

Wait - the search function is back up?
Watching Endgame, it struck me how many people in my life are no longer around who I attended various Marvel movies with back when they were starting up.

 

[Vombatus]

But we also have good new contributors who weren't here then. Hell, 2008, the year I left newspapers. Happily (I thought) married. Two kids finishing up college. If you had told me in six years time I'd be moving to New York I would have laughed like hell.

Now I'm five years into living in this area, no longer married, under 200 pounds for the first time in 30 years and happy af. And a grandfather, which contributes a lot to my being happy af.

**** happens. Things change. People come. People go. It's life.

I arrived in 2012!