At 40, I am convinced that we cosplay as adult characters to hide our inner child, mostly from ourselves. Some seem to allow the stresses of life and responsibilities to make the mask indistinguishable, but I doubt any truly make it real. Do you wear the mask of age over the eyes of your inner child? Does age hold a meaningful value to you beyond the comradery of shared experience?
I’m 35, I still buy toys in toy aisles, I still have cartoons from my past on lists when streaming stuff.
Here’s how I look at it - I’m responsible of an adult to do adult things when I need to. There’s just some things though that I’m allowed to do in my own space, away from everyone. It’s nobody’s fucking business. And I do admire those that are open about this thing. I do understand now why some people say that age is a number, in this context.
Besides, I find adult life pretty damn boring anyways. At my age, I’m expected to be knee-deep into sports, I’m expected to have had retirement savings like 401k, I’m expected to have a career I’m slaving myself to and all that shit. All the while wearing plain-ass clothing and getting into boring-ass conversations with NPCs.
Fuck all of that. You do you, I do me.