When I look back now from age 60 the least happy times of my life were between ages 21 and 32. Though I traveled and had many girlfriends until I got married at age 26 and had a son the main reason I was unhappy was that I had like most young people so many unrealistic expectations of my life. This caused incredible psychological suffering for most people my age at that time. The other factor that caused a lot of pain was even though, for example, I had about 25 girlfriends or more between ages 21 and 25 and was sexually active during that time, life was either "heaven", I was with a wonderful woman, or it was hell meaning that we had broken up and I was alone. Even when I married at age 26 and had a son(though I was very happy to be a father) my first wife was actually too young to be emotionally ready for this married relationship.(Even though she constantly tells me that divorcing me was the single worst mistake she ever made).(We are still good friends today).
All these (and many more) unrealistic expectations and so much heaven and hell made from age 21 to 32 barely survivable for me.
However, starting when I married again at age 32 having been a single parent for almost 3 years I married a friend with two children and the next 5 years were the happiest of my life not to be exceeded until I almost died in 1998, at age 50 and then miraculously recovered and went to Europe with my then 10 year old daughter and my mother to Scotland to see where her parents had grown up near Glasgow, Scotland. Then we flew to Germany and met my 25 year old son and his friend and rented a motorhome and drove through Austria, Switzerland and into northern Italy from Germany. This was the beginning of the best 10 years in my long life so far.
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