[justonceokay]

I’m interested in your experience. I injected a “second youth” into my life when I was around 30. I found myself having saved an incredible amount and as my above post implied I had my nose to the grindstone from 16-30. I spent a few years traveling the country, learned guitar and piano, went to massage school, produced music, had some brief affairs, worked at a beeswax candle factory, bartended, partied with drugs for the first time, and spent a whole summer making friends at the beach.

I learned so much about myself and the world and I wouldn’t be in the place I am today without my “second youth”. In a sense I gave myself the college social experience but I had an additional 10 years of wisdom to rely on (don’t follow the dealer to a second location, etc.)

[Tade0]

By my definition you didn't have the first one.

Anyway, one instance:

-Graduated law school, but didn't go through the bar exam.

-Spent seven years working part time and being part of a theatre group.

-Left that in his 30s in favour of entering the workforce for real, moved abroad and had a full time job for 4 years.

-Left that job, moved back to his home country and has been coasting doing part time jobs ever since.

Plenty of people with similar stories - some of them were shaped by the 2008 economic crisis, which made several European countries enter a period of stagnation that continues to this day.

[gentschev]

Out of curiosity, what did you segue into from the second youth, or are you still in it? Those phases seem fun but potentially hard to get out of, either because you don't want to or because you've lost the legibility that employers and potentially love interests want.

[justonceokay]

Electrician. It’s not as sexy but I’m pretty sure I’ll still be doing it 20 years from now