Personally, I don’t know ANYONE who experienced the “peak of life satisfaction” at 23.
Most people that age are still confused about what they want to do with their lives and sweating off some leftover hormones from the teen years. It’s more chaotic than satisfying, I think.
Edit: also, having a child at 26 sounds like hell.
I mean, not everyone.
Reading your comment was like reading my own back story, so that type of childhood is more common than people think.
There’s a tendency to portray childhood with a more rosy tint than the reality, and when you had a crappy childhood, it makes that mythologized perfect childhood seem like something sorely missed.
Everyone is different and has a different story, but I agree that my adulthood is far nicer than my childhood ever was. I don’t feel like I missed anything by having a less than perfect experience as a child, and I am grateful for the life I’ve had since then that helps put it into perspective.