Teen spirit – a musing

It occurred to me the other day that my mum’s recent remark that I’m “40 going on 14” might not be terribly far off the mark…after all, there do seem to be quite a few common threads between my life then and now:

First of all, since I hit my late 30’s, my hormones have gone mad, terribly unpredictable, and at times my libido has been off the scale.

Possibly as a consequence, I seem to spend at least as much time thinking about sex now as I did just over 20 years ago.

I’ve pretty much lost the urge to act like a grown up and be sensible which struck me in my late 20’s, and seeking out new experiences is much much more appealing than the familiarity and predictability of day to day life.

To add to that, I’m now in a new job, getting to know new people, with all the self-reflection and discovery that involves.

My need to seek out risks and thrills has also resurfaced, and I have an increasing urge to learn to ride a motorbike and to fly aerobatics.

Of course, the fact that I’m spending so much time staying with my parents doesn’t detract from these similarities in any way, especially as I’m sleeping in my old bedroom – I do rather miss the Andrew Ridgley and John Taylor posters 😉

I also now have the tattoo I always wanted as a teenager, and a PVC mac no altogether dissimilar from the one which was my absolutely favourite item of clothing when I was 18

But there are differences:

– my mum hasn’t once said “you can’t possibly be going out in that” or “you treat this house as a hotel”. The latter is particularly confusing as I am now completely treating the place as a hotel – per my mum’s suggestion, I do no cooking or cleaning at all and only the odd bit of clearing up so I do simply turn up, eat, sleep and chat.  Although at times the discussions about my future plans get just a bit wearing…

– after one particularly late night, I didn’t quite manage to creep in quietly without waking anyone, but no-one minded.

– I get to spend nights away “networking” without anyone asking any questions 😉

All in all, I think I’d rather be 40 than 14, or 18 for that matter. But I do like so thoroughly failing to act my age at times xxx