Up until your about 15 years of age, you are irrelevant, no matter how you protest or shout, you are nothing to noone and there ain’t a damned thing you can do about anything. Get used to it.
When you hit 16 to say 22, you start to be heard. It’s novel at first but then it becomes the norm.
In your prime?
Full of opinions and ideals, it’s a fun time.
Ironic, as you’re too busy enjoying life to the max. All you need is a job, any job, that pays enough to eat (occasionally) and provide you with enough for a few beers from Thursday to Sunday night.
Repeat for a few years. You have a laugh, you enjoy yourself, you are on form.
Don’t go silly and you’ll be good to go, not too many things in excess and you come out of the other side, with friends, maybe a new family, but life’s good.
Then you hit your mid 20s, your world starts to change, doubt creeps in for the first time, then again, then again, etc.
But you’re still top of the world, in control to a degree, priorities change but you’re good.
Late 20s/early 30s, things change again.
Fewer real friends are around, as life changes for all your crowd. Energy starts to take a hit, until one day you wake up after a night on the lash, you’re body’s recovery time starts to get longer.
Instead of a few hours kip then on to work and out again, you start to take a day or so to recover.
Real life takes over, seriousness all around, the fun stuff gets less.
Mid 30s/ early 40s, noticeable changes.
Strength and stamina start to wain, you are listened to less, people don’t take you seriously anymore.
The old footballer adage: Your mind knows what to do, but your legs won’t do it! Rings true.
Real life gets heavier, you sometimes wonder what’s happening, you start to feel distanced from the world and apart from the odd bit of recognition or good news, you are starting to become irrelevant.
You slowly realise you are just a number, in everything.
Life, work, relationships, wages, views, opinions, none of them seem to matter or get listened to anymore.
Into your early 50s, you are dispensable, no one wants to know anything.
You could have degrees in one thing and be asked about that one thing, but will anyone listen to your answer? Not a jot.
Find something you enjoy for yourself and plod on with it.
You have values and aims, not a single person around you will be interested in any of it.
If you’re lucky, you’ll have a couple of friends still around, but mostly you quickly learn to trust noone.
One final thing, everyone will think they know you (better than you) and treat you accordingly, based upon their own misconceptions.
You could tell them until you’re green in the face, they’ll still not believe it.
Best advice I can give to you when this happens is…
Let them get on with it. Stuff them all they do not matter.