Originally Posted by: earthman buckCall me a young fool if you will, but I still think dying young is the way to go. You older gents seem to be liking your age just fine, and that's cool, but I just can't see myself ever hitting that point. The oldest I can imagine myself is 17, and that's how old I am now.

This next birthday is gonna be goddamn weird.

Dude, dude, dude...(said while shaking my head). LATS summed it up perfectly but allow me to add my own two cents worth. It's totally nuts to think that way and, oddly enough, perfectly understandable. Like Schmange said, we're all convinced of our immortality in our youth. NOTHING can kill you at that point. Even when you lose a few friends or family to drunk driving, over-dose, psychosis or suicide, in your mind you think "Not me. Not me." I'm sure that each and every one of them thought the very same thing. In my life, and I am sure everyone else on GT can say the same thing, I have looked into enough coffins and stood over more than my fair share of closed ones to know that it's an ugly thing to witness. To see someone young, who never really lived, be gone. Be grateful for the life you have. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, romantic about an early death. Nothing.

Look, my birth father died when he was 31 years old (when I was 18 months old). He had cancer but ended up putting a bullet in his brain before the disease took him. My birth mother died a few years later from phlebitis at the tender age of 26. I was 4 1/2 years old at the time. I never really knew either one of them. But the point is, with that genetic load in my viens, every day past my 30th birthday was and is a true gift. Like you, when I was 18, I thought "I don't want to be old" and brother, I lived with every intention of being off this rock by the time I was 25. For several years, I was practically a local legend for my ability to consume copious amounts of alcohol and illegals and still manage to get up and go to work the following day. I drove my car so hammered I don't even remember leaving the party. And then one day, I realized 'Damn, this is a stupid way to live'. Look, you shouldn't plan for a quick death - plan for a long life and live that way.

There is this time/space thing that goes on with youth. At 17, you look at someone in their 40's or 50's and think 'My God, how old - I hope I don't see that age." And when you hit your 40's or 50's, you look at teenagers and think to yourself 'Man, how young, how immature I was at that age." Truth is, I've known a bunch of 'old' young guys and some 'young' old guys. It comes down to how you approach things. A great example for me was last year when I saw Dick Dale (Surf Guitar King for those of you too young to remember him) who, at the age of 70, rocked the house better than anyone else I had seen in years. No kidding. He literally kicked serious ass.

It's all in the approach. Trust us on this, you WILL see things differently in the future. Live fast, die young and leave a good looking corpse? That sort of nonsense dripped out the end of some Hollywood script writers pen. Why people think that dying young is some sort of overly romantic idea escapes me.

You haven't even become the person you're going to be yet. Why cheat yourself out of that? So many people to meet, so many things to do... heck man, you're just getting started!

And like the others have said, for those of 'older' people here, where there is life, there is hope. And yes, when you hit this age, all the ladies start looking good!!! :)