What do you remember about early twenties?

[lovely_darlingprettybaby]

I remember:
Going swimming and enjoying it.
I remember being certain places and just feeling so much hope that despite my illness, things would be great for me.
I remember I thought of being an astronaut and went to the university open day but did not like science subjects because I wanted to do something amazing
I remember seeing my niece in hospital and visiting her as a baby at my sisters.
I remember being at my aunty's place and i think she had a memorial for my other aunty.
I remember having soup with my aunty and sleeping in my cousin's bed eating white malteasers all night before she died.
I remember the very morning I found she passed and her funeral and Jeff Buckley hallelujah was played
I remember getting an elmo balloon when I visited the hospital and it was the best day ever.
I remember I volunteered with kids at the starlight room
I remember doing fund-raising with my brother and her really enjoyed it and was smiling and talked about it a few times after but i was sick that day and could barely stand all day.
I remember doing a ghost tour with my family and wearing my heels and freezing all night and cuddling my dad
I remember my 21st birthday and getting a beautiful cake, loves a lot care bear and red tulips and cuddling with my dad on the couch, it was great.
I remember another birthday going to the Melbourne zoo and getting a giraffe plush and that was a great birthday
I remember being real sick in hospital and I still was thinking of my dreams and how I was going to do something amazing with my life.
I remember shopping at the retro stores like dangerfield and retrostar and shag
I remember getting my coffee from Gloria jeans at the train station when I visited the city.
I remember shopping in the shopping centre and walking through Myers on my way to work
I remember putting my resume in shops and hoping for a callback.
I remember going to my colonsophy etc and the throat one and my mum sitting and talking to me the whole time when nervous
I remember having to drink the glucose drink for the diabetes test and it was so disgusting I do not know how I got through most of it and nearly threw up several times
I remember doing MySpace and having great friends including a man in France who was a comic book artist and was looking for his wife and livejournal.
I remember him sending me a comic book with a dedication in it
I remember really liking several singers that were favourites like Gabrielle Aplin
I remember if I could not sleep i watched movies every single night all night long and I had the best time, the same old movies
I remember talking to James this boy when i saw him on the train and my uncle
And also going to my friend Megan's 21st as well as my friend Claire's
I remember my friend David and I went to his house had an alcoholic drink and played video games and wore a naughty police uniform down the street at midnight and trying smoking and only doing 5 and throwing the rest of the pack out and him taking me to Brighton Beach and we had lunch there as well and stopping at McDonald on the way there.
I remember getting in trouble with the police for am incident I did when unwell anf them taking me to medical hospital and discharged and waited for my mum to pick me up.
I remember having an allergy test and the only thing I was allergic to was dust. Not cats, dogs, grass, molds, pollens or anything else.
I remember when people had headaches, I was like I am one of those lucky people who never have headaches and have to lie down and I do not remember many headaches and I was like I do not know what migranes are because I has never experienced it and it sounded awful but glad I never knew it
I remember going to the movies with mu cousin and mum, having popcorn or a chocolate with my mum and not liking the public restrooms but having so much fun.
I have some great memories of then.
Even sad memories often had their place.
I was depressed and unwell even more later but I had hope for things to get better.

 

[Misty Avich]

My early 20s were spent in an isolated, miserable state. All I did was flirt with men and look like a fool. I kept having rage outbursts at home, and just had severe depression that ebbed and flowed because I thought my life wasn't going anywhere. I wasn't out partying like other people in their early 20s. I was a stereotypical shut-in Aspie. I only had a couple of friends I'd see during the day, who were older than me and way past partying. I didn't get my first job until I was 22, and I didn't like it much but knew I'd be letting myself and my family down if I just quit, but I found it hard to look for a different job.
Then I met my first true love (my husband) at 24, and I did actually feel happier in myself. It had helped me get out of my rut and feel more worth it in life. I've always been the sort of "natural wife" type of person, so moving in with a man I love and getting married was my main goal in life.

I wouldn't want it any other way now, but I still find other things to be depressed about, because that's what being an overthinker does to you.

 

[jsilver256]

I fixated on school, skipped a couple of years, then graduated college at age 20 and in hindsight, that sent me on my first autistic burnout which lasted years.

I went to get my master's degree but I wasn't able to keep up with my friends or class, turned down so many invites, would fixate on one thing but it'd be gone in a couple of months, etc.

I did eventually get my stuff together and fixated on a new job which became my career and kept me going for years.

I was always a shut-in. Did not discover alcohol until I was in my 30s.

 

[Forest Cat]

It's all a blur. I think I have blocked out a lot of it.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I remember being 4 let alone 20.

 

[Judge]

- Pretty much everything.

Of course like for so many others, it was the dawn of my adulthood. A time having to get accustomed to being both "the bug, as well as the windshield". I'd prefer to just leave it at that.

 

[Misery]

I had college, and early jobs, this being back before my diagnosis.

With college, one of the things I remember most was the fact that for much of my time there, the campus, or what there was of it, was inaccessible. Renovations and whatnot. So, classes were often held in random hotels, in panel rooms. This meant a lot of driving to rather awkward locations, since the roads in the region I used to live in were made of stupid.

And jobs, just.... ugh. I remember the bank job most of all. The check sorters never worked right, there were two of them, every single check that the bank dealt with had to go through those, and it was typically me running both of them by myself. Dont know who thought THAT was a good idea. Or how I ended up being the one to do it. There was a lot of panicked jumping back and forth between the horrid things when they'd lock up or do things like spray checks into the air. Not the best designed machines. It was a temp position, sort of, and ended after one year. It was in this odd side building that you couldnt really tell was connected to the bank, and there was an underground tunnel connecting the two. Green walls, I remember green walls.

Also notably worked at Gamestop for awhile. This being before the current corruption of that company started to truly seep in. Well, I was there for the start of that, I remember the whole team could see the stupid coming before it even hit. I both liked and hated that job. Liked because of it being related to my special interest. Hated because of every other thing. The higher-ups started making us do things like trying to force customers to sign up for definitely useless things, or doing things like taking new games, pulling the disc out, THEN shrink-wrapping them. I do not remember what purpose this exactly served, but what I can tell you is that if you ever buy physical copies of games from them, just because it looks new, doesnt mean someone's grubby hands havent been all over the disc. I got a paycheck for zero dollars, once. I quit after that.

I also had my very first spine lock-up. Came outta nowhere (fortunately while I was at home), found myself on the floor, couldnt get up. A rather astonishing amount of pain. It would be the first of many.

Got my autism diagnosis, and the jobs ended there.

And other stuff that I've already talked at length about on the forums here.

 

[GypsyMoth]

everything

 

[GrownupGirl]

It was the 90s and I had an unhealthy obsession with Troll Dolls and Disney cartoons.
I was wrongly diagnosed with "schizophrenia form disorder"
I would often get into fights with my mom for not doing all the household chores while she was at work.
I took medication for anxiety that made my anxiety a lot worse.
I lived in the country far away from everything else and I often hated it because I couldn't drive and felt isolated.
I left home for the first time to live in a group home for people with mental illness, most of them had chronic schizophrenia. I really did not feel like I belonged.
At the group home I often had rage attacks and broke things and ended up having to pay for them.
On the plus side, I now had a lot more independence because I was living in the "city" and it was easier for me to get around without a car since I can't drive.
People often complained I spoke too loud in public.
I was working hard to get my artwork and writing recognized but with minimal success and began to wonder if I should give up the lifelong dream.
By the late 90s I had really bad doomsday anxiety and the media wouldn't shut up about Y2K.
I had always disliked the news, but thanks to the OJ Simpson trial and Y2K I had developed a growing, seething hatred of it.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

I remember plugging away at my studies, nose to the grindstone, especially in Physical Chemistry where my mathematical skills were lacking. Then in a pause between undergrad and graduate school I did research in Molecular Genetics and was published. My social isolation during that time was disturbing, especially as I could see people successfully pairing up. I especially felt damaged and this ramped up when I could see people who were in relationships being far more centered than I.

Then the stresses ramped up more considerably when I was in grad school and I felt ever more isolated.

During all of this I did not know I was autistic, just that I never fit in and continued to internalize negative ideas about myself. My early twenties were a malignantly miserable time in my life. I even contemplated unaliving myself with my access to toxic substances.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Best time of my life just finished college established career got married.

 

[Nitro]

At 19, I landed a job at an outfit that manufactured quadrupole mass spectrometers.
When I turned twenty, I was placed in charge of their precision mechanics area where we assembled and tested the mass filters and probe units before they were either sold or installed in our own ultra high vacuum chambers.
Testing involved learning how to start up and tune a mass spec, in order to run it thru it's paces.
I also assisted their engineering department with prototype work and improvements to our products.
This is a relic from those days that was actually superseded by another design revision which rendered it obsolete.

It is a CIEI ionizer (Chemical ionization/ electron impact)
that was mounted to a mass filter assembly.

The bottom view shows how we made the electrical connections and the focusing lenses that sent the electron stream into the mass filter.

After a few years there, I defected with the man that hired me to do a shop startup for another outfit that designed and built sublimation equipment used for semiconductor prototype work that help put the Silicon Valley on the map.

My experience with ultra high vacuum was what led me to that.

After several more years there, I finished off my 20s as a self-employed individual.

In all, my 20s were the setup for what would become my career, so I view them as a stepping stone for what was to come later.

 

[Xinyta]

I guess reminiscing about the past is good, if you have anything worth remembering. I don't. From the age of 6 to 32 years old was the worst period of my life.

 

[Raggamuffin]

Drugs & dreadlocks.

Ed

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

My career involved using visible light spectrophotometers measuring colour.

 

[Fino]

Not much! I did a lot of drugs.

 

[Aspychata]

A time l chose to forget, forget, forget.
Date rape, by somebody l met at my job. A very bad boyfriend, which led to having in the end to moving out of state. But it led me to Hawaii.

 

[Ghostinthemachine]

I remember it being a good time with good music in the UK at the time and lots of good films at the cinema, I was living away from my home town so it was a bit of an adventure

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Well, we are living in the early 2020s. But as this is a question regarding what we recollect about the early twenties, I assume the OP is asking about the early 1920s.

It started with modest gowns, genteel manners, and prohibition. But by 1925, women had the vote, The League of Nations had been established, hemlines raised, and the Charleston was all the rage.

Then in 1925, "Mein Kampf" was released by some ne'r do well art school drop out, causing a little bit of a stir in Germany. They say the author smelled of potted meat, and that his mother was a woman of ill repute. I personally would rather have read "The Great Gatsby", released the same year, by F Scott Fitzgerald.

After 1925 was the late 20s. And the OP did not ask for any information regarding that.

 

[Misty Avich]

Well, we are living in the early 2020s. But as this is a question regarding what we recollect about the early twenties, I assume the OP is asking about the early 1920s.

After 1925 was the late 20s. And the OP did not ask for any information regarding that.

The OP meant your early 20s, not the early 20s. If she did mean the early 20s then judging by the things she'd written in her OP she'd be about 120 years old now.