To Be 19 Again
By Brian
@wolfie34 (26771)
United Kingdom
September 7, 2009 7:11am CST
Do you remember when you were 19 years old? For some that wasn't too far away and for others it might seem like a distant memory.
For me it was back in 1990 when I was 19 years old, I had not long passed my driving test, second time round and I had just got myself my first car! It was a Mini Mayfair, orange in colour, so you couldn't fail to notice wolfie coming round!
Mind you when I was 19, wolfie wasn't a name I knew or had invented back then, in actual fact the internet wasn't around, scary eh! I was working in a call centre for a telecommunications company speaking to around 800 people a day, doubly scary!
I hadn't even been in a serious relationship at 19, maybe I was a slow starter, I was still living at home with my parents and I was a size "38 waist so I was a big boy, compared to being a size "32 now! So I've lost 6 inches around the waist.
As to whether I'd want to be 19 again? No, I can honestly say that I wouldn't want to be 19 again, certainly not the way the world is today. It's become a more scarier and worrisome place than it was back in 1990.
So would you like to be 19 again or do you remember with fondness or with sadness when you were 19, your last teenage year on this world.
1 person likes this
18 responses
@nannacroc (4049)
•
18 Sep 09
I remember being 19 as a happy time. My first daughter was born that year and I began the most rewarding job in the world, being a mum to her. She's in her 30's now and the best daughter anyone could wish for, (don't tell the other two). I wouldn't want to be 19 again though because I was so lacking in self confidence that I wouldn't even go in a shop alone.
1 person likes this
@nannacroc (4049)
•
18 Sep 09
Sorry, forgot to sign in as me, again. I will get used to it eventually.
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
13 Sep 09
I wouldn't want to be 19 again. I would still end up being a single Mum without a friend in the world and a family who chose to forget us. It was all just too hard and I hated my life and I made a real mess of things. To this day I don't know what I would do differently. I have been a lost soul for a long time.
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
13 Sep 09
That was tough for you dear friend. Life can be so damn cruel at any age can't it. What I can't understand is how some people get it so easily and live a life of pure happiness why others are made to suffer, as if we are being punished for a previous life, possibly? Hugs to you x
1 person likes this
@guybrush (4658)
• Australia
8 Sep 09
Wow - I can't specifically remember being 19 - the years around that time have blurred a bit - but I know I was a bit angsty, wrote a lot of silly poetry and wore hippy clothes and jewellery! I was working in the public service as a word processor operator and rode a motorbike. I was still living at home - and although I thought I was fat, looking back I'm amazed at how thin I actually was, as I still have my favourite pair of faded, embroidered jeans from that time and they won't even fit my skinny daughter! (Naturally, they won't fit me, either!)
1 person likes this
@JenInTN (27514)
• United States
7 Sep 09
I had been on my own for quite some time at the age of 19..lol..it was a very tough and aimless time for me really. My only goal was living and I didn't know what, how, or who..lol.. I had youth on my side then but I also had a lot to learn. I wouldn't want to be 19 again either. Not now.
1 person likes this
@maezee (41988)
• United States
8 Sep 09
I am actually 19 right now and in terms of my views on life..It's neither a happy or sad thing. It can be stressful, that's for sure. There's certainly a lot of stress involved with being 19 - it's not as easy as it sounds, unless you have parents who spoon-feed life to you (which I definitely don't). A lot of people say that they'd like to return to being a teen because of the lack of responsibility you have..But darn! I think I have more responsibility NOW than I will when I'm older (going to school/college full time, holding 2 part-time jobs, family obligations, paying bills on time, and just plain dealing with teen angst!) I have plenty of responsibilities right now; perhaps too much. I have fun, but life is mainly serious for me right now. I look forward to 5-10 years from now when I have a little less on my plate.
1 person likes this
@marctiu (829)
• Philippines
8 Sep 09
Hi there. My 19 years old age was not so very memorable. I tried many things when I was 19 and almost forgotten all.
Okay, let see... I was 19, 2 years ago. So it was back in 2007. I was in 2nd year college that time. I had many silly experience. I was the team leader that time and I was a team leader who like to boss around and do nothing, but I can group my team to 1 even I don't do anything. I really had fun. They were shock by my leadership skill. They were able to see how good I lead the group an accomplish task easily. I really had a nice team that time.
In my 19. It's the age i found my girlfriend. I truly love my girlfriend and I found her at the age of 19. I can also remember that time that I was very independent and don't even need the help of others in finishing one complicated job. I have many experience while I was 19. This is as far as I can remember and share.
Have a nice day.
1 person likes this
@gabs8513 (48686)
• United Kingdom
7 Sep 09
No Sweet I would not like to be 19 again either
I got married one Day before my 20th Birthday and my Life got even worse then it was before
Now I have peace, part of my self confidence back and I have someone who loves me
I had to wait a long time for that Person but the waiting was worth it
xxx
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
7 Sep 09
Hiya Gabs, I would love to be 27 again before I got 'involved' in two mentally abusive relationships no less, I was at my most happiest at 27, with my own flat, independence, freedom, job and happiness, well before I was diagnozed with depression and BPD xxx
@kalav56 (11464)
• India
7 Sep 09
How can I ever forget my teenage days and college days?This was such a long time back, but my memeories are evergreen.I was a youngster,full of song and fun and enjoyment , carefree, doing nothing else but going to college ,studying,chatting and having fun.I can go on and on, reminiscing about the good old days in college[I spent 6 years up to my M.A. in the same college and I loved it.]Even now, I can alawys feel a squeeze in my heart when I pass through the college compound.I have no words to describe this and I wluld recall them with a lot of love and nostalgia.I am in touch with a few friends but nothing can be equivalent to the days spent in college.Wonderful! Wonderful they were!Now I am middleaged and I do not feel like running back to those good old days, because I have had other experiences in life but when I relive those memories my heart swells with joy.
@missybear (11391)
• United States
8 Sep 09
I got married at 19 and moved from Germany to America.
That was a huge change in my life but that was 26 years ago and I'm still here.
Not married anymore but that's OK.
To answer your question "Yes I would love to be 19 again. Those were some fun times.
@zoey7879 (3092)
• Quincy, Illinois
7 Sep 09
I remember 19 very, very well.. and there is no way in hell that I would want to be a teenager again....it's such a scary place to be in time. During my 19th year, I had worked as a nanny, a clerical assistant in a hospital, and in news printing press, .sometimes up to 110 hours a week. I finally quit doing all of that, and for the first time moved more than a 30 minute drive away from home... to a place that I had only visited once for one night. I had only met my new roommates for a matter of minutes before going there.. that situation only worked out for a few months, but it's nothing that I'll ever regret :) I also remember it being the last year that I was relatively healthy.
1 person likes this
@sblossom (2168)
•
7 Sep 09
I think i remembered my 19 very well, even some details. The main reason was the year i finished my grammar school and planed to university.
however it was not good memory because i was not satisfied with the university i was going to.
i was too sad at the memont then i closed myself at home and did not want to see any body.
my parents worried me a lot at the time. When the university opening time came i decided to give it up but my parents disagreed.
So i had to go to the university that i hated. There i passed my four years then i left it and never came back.
I think if i have a chance i would like to back to 19 years old again. i want to spend my time on the new technology study and i will have a meaningful university life.
1 person likes this
@tintukm (1102)
• India
7 Sep 09
Wolfie I can understand what you are thinking of the 19 years of age/the last teenage.The world is not a bad place though,with the last teenage on.There are so many memories for me when actually my teenage started,because I am still around that age,late 1990 meant be the staring for me,my dad actually believes he could enjoy more than he does now his late 40's,if he becomes a teenager.
Many would not prefer like you,but its actually the way one has lived his/her up till now,I suppose.
@tintukm (1102)
• India
7 Sep 09
Life do makes one a different kind of a person,up till now we must think life has been lovely,isn't it,this would make us live in the present rather than going for the search of past glory and well longing for the future to be even more wonderful.
Isn't here 29,39,49,.. life's so amazing,right.
@DCLehnsherr (1037)
•
7 Sep 09
Hi Wolfie,
19 for me was 2 years ago and I wouldn't want to go back there, hell no lol! 
I was at university and so was dealing with the stress of masses of assignments. I was also stressed from random image issues I developed a few years before which, coupled with the stress of university, turned into someone big enough for me to get help from professionals!
I have only just overcome those things 2 years later so I can safely say I would rather not go back to the start of it all lol! I don't think anything good happened in my 19th year either. When not stressed, at university, studying, or working out, I think I was just existing and waiting for the random epiphanies that would occur to bring me to this point, though maybe one happened at the end of my 19th year, I would have to check that. I don't think it is worth going back just for the epiphany though, not really lol!
All the best,
Dranz
PS: Awesome sounding first car lol!
I was at university and so was dealing with the stress of masses of assignments. I was also stressed from random image issues I developed a few years before which, coupled with the stress of university, turned into someone big enough for me to get help from professionals!
I have only just overcome those things 2 years later so I can safely say I would rather not go back to the start of it all lol! I don't think anything good happened in my 19th year either. When not stressed, at university, studying, or working out, I think I was just existing and waiting for the random epiphanies that would occur to bring me to this point, though maybe one happened at the end of my 19th year, I would have to check that. I don't think it is worth going back just for the epiphany though, not really lol!
All the best,
Dranz
PS: Awesome sounding first car lol!1 person likes this
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
7 Sep 09
Hi Dranz, thank you for reliving your 19th year even though you said you didn't enjoy it. I only had that car for a year it actually put me off driving because it gave me a lot of hassle and it wasn't the easiest of cars to drive, it actually took another 12 years before I got my next car believe it or not!
@lisamcal (1)
• United States
7 Sep 09
I wish I was 19 again. I would probably do things differently. I was 19 in 1988. The year I graduated from high school. No I didn't flunk. My parents started me a year late. Although I love my kids dearly I would have done things differently like finish college and have that great career. But now that the kids are here you try your best for them not to follow in your footsteps but it's hard. Oh to be 19 again! What a dream! I had just graduated from high school and started working in a commissary in the air force base. I was bagging groceries for military families and I've enjoyed it. Made great tips as a bagger. Then I started working for the BX(Base Exchange) in the air force base when I got pregnant with my first child. After I gave birth I went to college but never finished it. Got pregnant again and got on welfare for a few years then met my husband and got married. Wonderful man. Workaholic and a loving husband. Nobody could ask for more.
@miamilady (4910)
• United States
7 Sep 09
Ninteen was not such a great period of time for me. If I've ever been bi-polar, my late teens and early twenties would have been my most bi-polar period in my life.
It's nice to be able to reminisce, but I don't think there is any particular age that I'd want to go back to. Each age has had it's ups and downs.
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
7 Sep 09
Life has it's ups and downs I agree, I like being able to reminisce but leaving out all the bad parts and I kind of get sad as well, especially when I was in my late twenties, a period of my life when I truly experienced happiness and life was great for me.
1 person likes this
@dbabcook (388)
• United States
8 Sep 09
In one way I would like to be 19 again and that would only be so that I could change what I have done since then in my life and make it better than it is now. Unfortunately that isn't a reality so I guess I would have to say NO to going back to 19. Even more so as I know what this world is coming to and it scares me terribly especially raising a child right now. I only hope that things go better for her than they did for me.
@EnglishTeaDuck (862)
• United States
8 Sep 09
In some ways I would want to be nineteen again. I would make very different decisions, I think, and I would pursue the career which I should have, instead of leaving it the way I did.
When I was nineteen, I was at college studying drama and theatre. I spent my days and nights in theatres and studios and working with theatre companies. Yes, I would like to be back there.
