I'm 34. I was recently talking with my wife about how I feel differently than I did in my mid 20's (25) when we got married. I was curious if others have seen the same trends.
For example:
I love an after-lunch nap on the weekend now. 30-40 minutes. I NEVER napped in my twenties.
I never napped then and still don't now.
Weight is easier to gain and much tougher to lose. Ten years ago I could go on a hard core three week diet and trim 10-12 pounds. Now, not so. Not even close.
I've always had problems losing weight, mostly due to very poor dietary habits. No amount of exercise could undo the craptastic food and beer I've ingested over the years. I've maintained at 235lbs for close to a decade now, so maybe I should be thankful it hasn't gotten worse.
Sex drive is a little lower, but it was sky high 10 years ago so that's no big deal. (Insert "Low T" joke here).
No change in sex drive.
Stress level is naturally higher, with three dependents (two kids, wife).
Mine is exponentially higher due to 3 kids.
I have to wear glasses to drive at night. No other time.
No change in vision at all.
I don't have the same interest in travel that I used to, especially international travel. Just no interest. Maybe Yellowstone with the kids or something.
I actually want to travel more so my kids can see the world the same way I did.
Oddly, I play far less golf than I used to, but that could be due to the expanded family and time. But I also don't feel the same level of interest. It got old to me, as did fishing.
I play the same amount of golf I used to, I just don't play as much tournament golf because breaking away for a weekend for a 2 or 3 day tournament is too difficult with kids. I still get in 3 or 4 big events every summer, but when I was 25 it was easily 10-12 events.
I can "veg out" on the couch now. I was too spun up to veg out 10 years ago.
I never take time to relax. Kids keep me on my toes.
I had to have a nice looking, new (late model) ride in my 20's. Now I don't care that much about what I drive so long as it's clean and runs.
Ditto. I'm driving a 2000 model SUV that only has 130k miles on it. I'll keep going until it falls apart. I really enjoy not having a car payment.
I used to be apathetic about about TV, other than sports. Now I watch sitcoms and reality TV and just bought a nice 46 inch LED Samsung to make sure I watch these shows in comfort. A TV would not have been a priority purchase 10 years ago.
I handle stress at work and home far better than I used to. I can handle aggravating people better, too. I'm not in near as big a hurry, even though I'm older and have "less time" to advance my career. For some reason when I got out of law school I was in a big damn hurry to hit the home run. My impatience actually hurt me. Twentysomethings; your twenties and early thirties are for learning...don't worry (too much) about money and being the superstar during that time. Learn, then use the knowledge from that period to earn.
So the point of that wandering diatribe was a solicitation to others on the board...how do (or did) your mid thirties differ from your mid twenties?