Being legit, authentic

I was literally isolated for the first sixteen years of my life.... I fear i'm kinda boring.... i know people who have travelled, have college degrees, gone to Grateful Dead shows, had awesome amazing experiences, have done amazing things. my life has been pretty boring and uneventful in comparison. just like as a kid, not being allowed to go to sleepovers, concerts, field trips....i sometimes feel when i'm really down that i'm missing out, that i'm not legit, authentic, that i'm missing out.
anyone else this way? advice? comments?
my husband quotes the song Shakedown Street when i talk about this.
"it's not because you missed out, on the things that we had to start...."

 

You still seem very intelligent to me.....and I do not think you are missing out on anything. You followed your own path, is all....and maybe are one of the path leaders for others.....

 

I don't know what to tell you. When I was 18 and moved outta my mom's house I felt like I had missed out on a good bit of CERTAIN types of things... not vacations and trips because we were always going places... but I was never allowed to watch horror movies or certain other things so often about some stuff like that I felt pretty clueless, except the instances as a teenager that I happened to see certain things at friend's houses. Also, my mom is very idealistic and kinda naive... it's hard to explain exactly how but despite certain bad things happening to me when I was younger, I was kinda naive---like thinking the world was rosy and expecting the best from everyone-trusting everyone, etc.- Certain things that a lot of other people seemed to just KNOW (not to trust certain people, certain street smarts things on that level...), I had to figure out on my own, and figure out the hard way. It's not the same thing exactly as what you are saying but my point here is... that I caught up quick and went WAY BEYOND what I needed to learn. Like... I MORE than made up for things. And really it's okay not to have every kind of experience as everyone else. Everyone is on their own level and should only be concerned w themselves.

 

then you just got a poke around..

 

I dont think having had a sheltered childhood has anything to do with being authentic

 

guess i'm somewhere inbetween. never been out of the same country i was born in, the u.s., more then 48 hours, that was one time in my life and that was victoria island canada. of course the u.s. is a big place, but i never got to really spend a lot of time going around very far places within it either.

longest move was being born in buffalo new york in 1948 and then my parents and me moving to venice california in 51, which we didn't stay there more then 6 months before moving up to truckee, which gets just as much snow as buffalo, but is a relatively small over priced gateway to ski areas town, where i started kindergarten.
from the third grade on i ended up in placer county california, which is in the norther and eastern corner of the state, bisecting the sierra nevada mountains.

i like to say i was raised in the woods by wolves, except there supposedly weren't any wolves there at that time. except the friendly one i met, which is a story for another time. at any rate the town of colfax had less then a thousand people, four bars, three churches, and two short blocks of mom and pop retailers, along one side of one street, the other side of which was the railroad my dad worked for.

well 40 of my 66 years i ended up living in placer county. not all in one stretch, but less of my life anywhere else. not because i have any love for its politics, but i did love my mountains and my forest.

that leaves a total of 16 years i've ever lived anywhere else. ten of those were in oregon from 77 to 87. of the remaining 6. 2.5 were in the air force, to get out of being sent by the army to kill people who didn't need killing in a "war" i was opposed to. minus the furst three years of my life, that leaves not much. seatle briefly, and reno in the early 70s and now, next door to reno in sparks, where i've been for it'll be a couple of years come november if i live that long.

my interests have always been in trains, computers before there were any such things a relatively impoverished person like myself could ever get ahold of, and several ways of being creative and exploring.

high school band starting out, and photography, mostly of trains and forests, because this was long before personal computers or even pong. took geology classes in college and worked on a mineral drill rig, then the railroad briefly, and pretty much resteraunt work after that, when i had work or subsidised school at all.

had money that amounted to anything exactly twice in my life. the day i quit the railroad and the day my v.a. finally came through.

did finally get married when i was almost 50. that lasted 13 years till she up and died on me. almost 6 years ago now. after the railroad and before seattle i got to ride around on a greyhound the western states. that was as much travelling around as i ever got to do. we've got google satellite now, and youtube and pictures people post on the internet. that being how i get to see what i do.

my highschool years was that little town out in the woods back before anyone besides government and big companies had computers and my parents didn't have a car yet either, so i really never got to see much of anything until after the air force and then after the railroad.

 

I kinda feel spoilt in comparison. >.>

 

Yea, the more I thought about this thread after posting in it... I do recall in CERTAIN areas just feeling like I was, idk... behind and didn't always know what people were talking about and/or had things to learn on my own when I was 18 and on my own....BUT I don't recall ever not feeling AUTHENTIC... feeling like I was fake or anything. If I didn't know something I just... didn't know it, didn't care. It's really not a big deal though, op. We all create our own path and eventually it starts to feel like... been there, done that. And that. And that. And yawn.

 

Cliche, but...

Today is the first day of the rest of your life

You have the rest of your life to seek out authentic experiences

 

Music seems to be a huge part of my life adventures. I always love going to gigs and shows.
Traveling too has always been big for me and I've gone to a lot of countries albeit confined in one area hehe.

 

What are you passionate about? Being authentic comes from within not without.

 

I'm a musician... Never played in a band. Can't even "jam" with a group of guys.

But then again, they can't follow where I'm coming from either.

 

I felt that way when I was a bit younger...I definitely felt like I learned so much more about myself and kinda became myself more once I started having different experiences. I definitely recommend pushing yourself to experience some of the things you feel like you missed out on.

 

what, did you grow up in a jail cell?

 

i have no idea what legit and authentic means...

im just honest ...always have been always will be


and its the way i prefer my friends to be but i have some who arent and i accept them as they are just fine

 

I think it means you do things with integrity and your beliefs and actions are in line with who you really are, rather than who you want to be or who you're portraying due to walls, fears, etc.

 

Perhaps it is perspective more than anything else. Our own tends to colour our views and experiences as do those on the flip side of the coin. To have those mesh or be a variance is a testament to how we evolve.

We evolve in life.

 

Dont think ive ever read a legit post from you

 

If you feel that way, then try some shit! Maybe you are missing out on something. Nobody else can answer that question for you. You have to make some effort and take some risks to find out who you are and what you want in life, now that your parents are no longer making decisions for you.

Ideally, it should never end. :cheers2:

 

It's never too late bud. If you want to travel, go. If you want to go to college, go. You just need to get started.