Nadirs
Discussion arising from an over-the-cube-walls convo: Disregarding major personal tragedies like the death of a parent or horrific events like 9/11, what has been the worst year of your life so far?
To a person, every woman in the group said “Seventh grade.” I don’t think I really have to elaborate on why — most of y’all can just think of seventh grade, and cringe.
So that was too easy. But the interesting thing was, almost universally again, the second-worst turned out to be age 22. Now, 22 gets fetishized in sitcoms and The Real World and lad mags and what have you, but I remember it as an anxiety-filled, at-loose-ends kind of year — my bod was still kind of not great (too much herbal refreshment + munchies, and beer, and not enough exercise in those last months of college), 21 was gone and the dread 25 was looming, school was over and I didn’t know what to do next, everything was just kind of up in the air in the worst way — and that seems to have been a really common experience.
The men couldn’t really agree on a single worst year, in general — or maybe they just didn’t want to share why. Guys, any thoughts?
To a person, every woman in the group said “Seventh grade.” I don’t think I really have to elaborate on why — most of y’all can just think of seventh grade, and cringe.
So that was too easy. But the interesting thing was, almost universally again, the second-worst turned out to be age 22. Now, 22 gets fetishized in sitcoms and The Real World and lad mags and what have you, but I remember it as an anxiety-filled, at-loose-ends kind of year — my bod was still kind of not great (too much herbal refreshment + munchies, and beer, and not enough exercise in those last months of college), 21 was gone and the dread 25 was looming, school was over and I didn’t know what to do next, everything was just kind of up in the air in the worst way — and that seems to have been a really common experience.
The men couldn’t really agree on a single worst year, in general — or maybe they just didn’t want to share why. Guys, any thoughts?
posted by Gleemonex at 10:40 AM
5 Comments:
Whoa. I expected the 7th grade answer (because, ugh), but I'm surprised by the 22 answer... it's close to my worst year (23) because I graduated college, got fired from my dream job, and had to rent out my dream house. Sweet! Awesome year! Good to know this is a shitty age for everyone. Comfort in numbers and all that.
I think it's a Mars/Venus thing. Men just don't worry about years in general. Most men think about worst days I guess, but even then it's probably sports related. My worst day was in 1986 when the ball went through Bill Buckner's legs. But, I never really had a worst year.
Whereas, that same day was one of the best of my father-in-law's life ...
I'd say 24 was worse for me than 22. Maybe I'm a late bloomer. But even going by yearbook pictures... yeah, 7th grad was a pretty terrible year.
Total agreement. 7th grade = torture. 22, also awful for same reasons as yours. Mmmmmaybe 23 was worse, because I actually ended up homeless with my BA that year. um.
In other news, 10,000 bonus points of love for the obscure Tenacious D reference in your blog subhead.
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