Friends who are younger/older

[SukiWukiDookie]

Hi everyone.

Do any of you have the dilemma of not having a lot of friends around your age? Specifically like, 5-8 yrs age difference? I'm 26, not that old, but I've made friends over the years who were that far apart in age, some older, but mostly younger, both guys and gals.

On one hand, I feel young, I look young (people always mistake me for 16 or 17), and my younger friends have great energy and introduce me to a lot of new stuff I'd be missing out on. The downside: I do feel the maturity gap, and sometimes can't relate to that generation.

My older friends are wise and intelligent, but sometimes can't keep up with my more immature sensibilities.

People my age that I get along with are hard to come by, and are usually so invested in their "adult" lives that maintaining friendships is hard. Whereas my younger friends are still in or just graduating high school, and have more freedom.

I feel weird for this sometimes, like I should be making friends in their mid-20s like me. But I also feel I'm just too different, and like most things in my life, I'm in the middle, neither completely one side or the other. I'm too young for the old crowd and too old for the youngins.

How about you guys? What do you think? Am I just not trying hard enough? Is this normal for an artist like me? Are we artists forever cursed to lifestyles shunned by societal norms?

Where do you draw the line on friendship ages?

[Painbringer]

Yeah, I'm kinda like that too.

Mentally, I'm about a decade behind. Some of the people I've hanged out with during my lifetime were 5 years younger. And my BF is over 20 years older than me.

[Boss]

its always hard convincing a 12 year old to hit the blunt. JOKING!. lol. ..

I feel like if I go out and meet someone older who is known for their skillset(s), it will always seem like we cannot completely be friends, but that I will be more of a potential consumer of their product. Although, this can really be more along an antisocial, anxious, and self deprecating line of thought, so I don't think it is necessarily applicable in every situation.

I also feel like it may be harder for you to take each other seriously if the age gap is too large, although like the last point I mentioned, it doesn't always have to be true... but the customs/culture and general... sizing up of each other means that there is a bit more to be proved in the terms of showing your trustworthiness, or that you can really understand each other.

I think it's good and definitely healthy to be able to have friends of all different ages, and I suppose it is a sign of maturity as well.

[Kiwi]

I have no friends irl

[SukiWukiDookie]

At 9/5/17 08:17 PM, Alias wrote: I have no friends irl

do you brush ur teeth

[Kiwi]

At 9/5/17 08:19 PM, SukiWukiDookie wrote:

At 9/5/17 08:17 PM, Alias wrote: I have no friends irl

do you brush ur teeth

every night

[SukiWukiDookie]

At 9/5/17 08:20 PM, Alias wrote:

At 9/5/17 08:19 PM, SukiWukiDookie wrote:

At 9/5/17 08:17 PM, Alias wrote: I have no friends irl

do you brush ur teeth

every night

Did you try talking to ppl

[Kiwi]

At 9/5/17 08:21 PM, SukiWukiDookie wrote:

At 9/5/17 08:20 PM, Alias wrote:

At 9/5/17 08:19 PM, SukiWukiDookie wrote:

At 9/5/17 08:17 PM, Alias wrote: I have no friends irl

do you brush ur teeth

every night

Did you try talking to ppl

i hate people

[SukiWukiDookie]

At 9/5/17 08:26 PM, Alias wrote:

At 9/5/17 08:21 PM, SukiWukiDookie wrote:

At 9/5/17 08:20 PM, Alias wrote:

At 9/5/17 08:19 PM, SukiWukiDookie wrote:

At 9/5/17 08:17 PM, Alias wrote: I have no friends irl

do you brush ur teeth

every night

Did you try talking to ppl

i hate people

But i dindu nuffin to you

[Kiwi]

At 9/5/17 08:31 PM, SukiWukiDookie wrote:

At 9/5/17 08:26 PM, Alias wrote: i hate people

But i dindu nuffin to you

are you a people

[SukiWukiDookie]

At 9/5/17 10:13 PM, Alias wrote:

At 9/5/17 08:31 PM, SukiWukiDookie wrote:

At 9/5/17 08:26 PM, Alias wrote: i hate people

But i dindu nuffin to you

are you a people

YEH

[rottenray]

At 9/5/17 06:13 PM, SukiWukiDookie wrote: Hi everyone.

Do any of you have the dilemma of not having a lot of friends around your age? Specifically like, 5-8 yrs age difference? I'm 26, not that old, but I've made friends over the years who were that far apart in age, some older, but mostly younger, both guys and gals.

On one hand, I feel young, I look young (people always mistake me for 16 or 17), and my younger friends have great energy and introduce me to a lot of new stuff I'd be missing out on. The downside: I do feel the maturity gap, and sometimes can't relate to that generation.

My older friends are wise and intelligent, but sometimes can't keep up with my more immature sensibilities.

People my age that I get along with are hard to come by, and are usually so invested in their "adult" lives that maintaining friendships is hard. Whereas my younger friends are still in or just graduating high school, and have more freedom.

I feel weird for this sometimes, like I should be making friends in their mid-20s like me. But I also feel I'm just too different, and like most things in my life, I'm in the middle, neither completely one side or the other. I'm too young for the old crowd and too old for the youngins.

How about you guys? What do you think? Am I just not trying hard enough? Is this normal for an artist like me? Are we artists forever cursed to lifestyles shunned by societal norms?

Where do you draw the line on friendship ages?

I'm not an artist, but I know what you're talking about. In high school, when I was a freshman, most of my friends were juniors or seniors. I just identified with them better.

Later in life, when I hit around 39, most of my friends were half or two thirds my age. I found their energy and acceptance as a fuel for my life.

Now that I'm in my mid fifties, it's gotten harder to make casual friendships. I no longer "get" the younger folks' stuff so I don't fit in with them, most of the people my same age are deadly boring, and a lot of the folks older than I am who I'd like to hang out with are so limited in ability that it makes it impossible... Unless you want an evening of helping everyone to the bathroom.

Life is hard, especially when you don't fit into your age bracket. I feel your pain.

[Kieran]

well all my friends are the same age as me give or take a few months but id rather have a friend thats older then me by about 10 years because of the wisdom and advice

[ScarrusMortis]

At 9/5/17 06:13 PM, SukiWukiDookie wrote: Hi everyone.

Do any of you have the dilemma of not having a lot of friends around your age? Specifically like, 5-8 yrs age difference? I'm 26, not that old, but I've made friends over the years who were that far apart in age, some older, but mostly younger, both guys and gals.

On one hand, I feel young, I look young (people always mistake me for 16 or 17), and my younger friends have great energy and introduce me to a lot of new stuff I'd be missing out on. The downside: I do feel the maturity gap, and sometimes can't relate to that generation.

My older friends are wise and intelligent, but sometimes can't keep up with my more immature sensibilities.

People my age that I get along with are hard to come by, and are usually so invested in their "adult" lives that maintaining friendships is hard. Whereas my younger friends are still in or just graduating high school, and have more freedom.

I feel weird for this sometimes, like I should be making friends in their mid-20s like me. But I also feel I'm just too different, and like most things in my life, I'm in the middle, neither completely one side or the other. I'm too young for the old crowd and too old for the youngins.

How about you guys? What do you think? Am I just not trying hard enough? Is this normal for an artist like me? Are we artists forever cursed to lifestyles shunned by societal norms?

Where do you draw the line on friendship ages?

I am 25 years old German. Ufortunately or not, my girlfriends and ex-girlfriends are 5 - 7 years younger. I only have one friend who is 24 years old. And a lot of friends between 17-23. I don't think that i am cursed, i think that it is depending on my lifestyle. I only see younger people on partys and festivals, their have friends in their ages that learn me so it keeps coming.

I don't have any lines to draw. I have friends that are 10 years older than me and I am satisfied with the situation.

[DanielTheManiel]

At 9/5/17 06:13 PM, SukiWukiDookie wrote:
How about you guys? What do you think? Am I just not trying hard enough? Is this normal for an artist like me? Are we artists forever cursed to lifestyles shunned by societal norms?

Where do you draw the line on friendship ages?

I don't have any friends besides my brother really, but I have never cared about age when making friends.

You could be like 50 and I wouldn't care, age is not really a factor to me.

[WaffleCrisp]

Most of my friends looked older but very immature in action, with very brilliant minds. We went our separate ways after highschool.

[Kiwi]

At 9/6/17 04:04 PM, Dynastywarriors5 wrote: my friend @alias is 47 years old

it's true i also have a mustache and six cats

[OneThousandMeeps]

At 9/6/17 05:29 PM, Alias wrote:

At 9/6/17 04:04 PM, Dynastywarriors5 wrote: my friend @alias is 47 years old

it's true i also have a mustache and six cats

Only six?

[The-Great-One]

At 9/5/17 10:14 PM, SukiWukiDookie wrote:

At 9/5/17 10:13 PM, Alias wrote:

At 9/5/17 08:31 PM, SukiWukiDookie wrote:

At 9/5/17 08:26 PM, Alias wrote: i hate people

But i dindu nuffin to you

are you a people

YEH

I laughed much harder at this post chain than I should have. On topic though, I have few friends older than me, some my age, and others that are younger than me. For some reason teenagers find me interesting and cool. Why I have no fucking idea, I am quite the fucking loser. Whatever though.

[Kiwi]

At 9/6/17 07:26 PM, OneThousandMeeps wrote:

At 9/6/17 05:29 PM, Alias wrote:

At 9/6/17 04:04 PM, Dynastywarriors5 wrote: my friend @alias is 47 years old

it's true i also have a mustache and six cats

Only six?

only six

[ADR3-N]

Most of my friends are either 20 years my senior or 2-10 years younger. I'm noticing I get along with everyone pretty much fine, but the maturity gap of the younger generation is getting waaaaay bigger. Or maybe it just seems that way because I matured really fast. Most of my friends are admittedly idiots who are still chasing poon tang and/or obsessed with anime, k-pop, the rap scene, dying their hair crazy colors, drinking and partying, gays, trannies, and dating, in no particular order.

A lot of them don't seem to understand that eventually, you've got to get out of school and living with your parents at some point and actually contribute to society in some fashion, and hard work builds character, even volunteer labor. Oh, and most of them are hard left liberals who espouse being open-minded but don't really understand that in order to be tolerant, you kinda have to not hate people for not agreeing with you, lol. A lot are very ego-centric and although they get along with me just fine, can't get along with one another for getting offended when people's actual personalities, beliefs, and character come to the table.

That being said, this is just a generalization of some of the worst types of immaturity I run into from my more distant buddies. They haven't outgrown junior high state of mind yet, so there's a lot of unnecessary drama, primping, and hypersexuality. Most of them are still in the rebellion phase, trying to find their identities. My closer friends are a little more level headed and closer to where I'm at.

I get along really well with almost everyone I come across and am just a very amicable person in general so even if I don't necessarily relate to most people around me, I try not to point fingers, judge, or make them uncomfortable. I just spout a little wisdom and if they don't listen, I move on and enjoy the moment, unless they're making me really uncomfortable. Never really had a problem after escaping the hellish bs of high school hell, at least since I myself have matured and calmed down.

I'm not quite as comfortable around the older friends. I think they judge me for being unemployed. They always tell me I'm too smart/mature, etc. to be stuck where I am.