Who are YOU going to be?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Although I have many times heard the benefits of developing a 5-year plan or a 10-year plan, I don't think I have ever heard of anyone advocating the development of a 20-year plan.

Here is my question: How do you envision yourself at 50? At 60? Or at 70, 80... whatever age you will be at in 20 years?

Do you know anyone who is at that age, or anyone you have known at that age, who exemplifies the person you want to be? Why?

If you don't or can't envision yourself in 20 years, why (please do not use the stereotypical "I won't be alive by then" answer unless you have a very clearly fatal disease, just don't bother answering, seriously, also right now resign yourself to a slow and awkward death by alcoholism while playing video poker well into your 60s, like that isn't completely exactly the definition of hell).

Anyway, basically, my question is...
what do you look like in 20 years?
What do you do for fun?
What have you accomplished in your life?
Who are your friends?
What is your economic status?

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Hmmm. I'll be 52.

I look more or less the same as I did as at 32, but wrinklier.
I don't rightly know what I do for fun, since I don't know what technological advancements (or setbacks) were made between 2013 and 2033. But I imagine playing music is still involved.
I've graduated college. At some point.
My friends are option a) technological advancements: spread across the world. Maybe one or two just arriving on Mars.
                             b) technological setbacks: in close proximity to where I live, with some penpals across the world.
                             c) major technological setbacks: Whoever is willing to kill and skin a deer with me. Maybe some rocks.
My economic status is average, and stable. I've managed to pull myself out the usually broke situation, have a cushion in case something shits the bed. I probably still don't have a car though if I live in an urban area, or am hunting deer.

[Pergamos]

I'll be 55.  I'll have finished going bald on the top and still be lazy about shaving it, so I'll look fine as long as I shave, and old as fuck when I don't.    I expect to be about the same weight, my metabolism already slowed down and my weight plateaued.  I expect to have less good teeth, but hopefully still enough to have a nice smile.

Judging by my current career trajectory I'll most likely be supported by a woman, that woman will most likely be my wife.  I expect I'll be working, but I won't be the breadwinner.  I'll probably still be lower middle class.

I'll still be playing video games and doing real life roleplaying for fun but those videogames will be way cooler than they are now.  Maybe we'll even have immersive VR.  I expect I'll still do a lot of my socializing online.  Hopefully I'll be physically in good enough shape to still enjoy hikes and such,  I take decent care of myself so I should be good into my 50's.

My friends will mostly be younger than I am (they are currently and I figure that trend will only continue) although there will be some my own age and a bit older who I have known for a long time and perhaps a few new ones as well.  Some I will interact with only online, some I will see occasionally, and some will live in the same place I do.

I'll have raised an awesome kid, who I expect will by then be more professionally successful than I have yet managed.  I'll have been putting new and unusual thoughts in people's head for a good 40 years at that point, and I'll be able to look myself in the mirror and tell myself that I've fucked things up a bit less than most.

[P3nT4gR4m]

In 20 years I reckon I'll either be in a wheelchair or 80% cyborg, although being dead is also a distinct possibility

I don't particularly need a plan for this, other than keep doing what I do. The rest should take care of itself.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

I don't even have an idea what I'll be doing in 20 months...

[EK WAFFLR]

I'll be 51. Hopefully, I'm living off music, writing and photography. I probably live on a small farm where I have a tiny house that doubles as a studio and a writing cabin.
Probably won't be rich, but I'll have enough to get by. I'll probably be completely grey by then, and when I go completely grey, I have promised myself, and the world, that I'm doing the Gandalf look.

[Sita]

I'll be 53

what do you look like in 20 years? - probably like my mother
What do you do for fun? - probably the same as I do now. Gaming and watching videos/movies. Reading.
What have you accomplished in your life? - Survival. Hopefully having raised a son that is doing alright for himself at 31.
Who are your friends? - Friends are mythical things. I have none now, so don't really see having any in 20 years.
What is your economic status? - Probably the same. Just barely getting by.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

20 years and I'll be my mom's age when she died.

So, in addition to the crazy that will inevitably cause, I'll also be dealing with menopause, my kids being off on their own, and potentially some really serious health problems for the husband if he doesn't start taking better care of his stupid ass. We won't be living in Massachusetts anymore, might be in Chicago or LA (hopefully nothing will have gone sideways enough that we're looking at places without extradition treaties, but you never know).

I expect to be engaged in some drug tourism at that point in my life. Nothing crazy, just the typical "there's a time and a place for everything and that's college" type stuff I didn't get into then. I'd like to have a real honest-to-goodness novel done by that point and be working on more. I think 49 is going to be an awkward age for me, not quite teenager all over again but definitely one of those weird transitional years you go through now and again. I doubt the friends I have at 49 will be the same ones I have a couple years before or a couple years after.

I'll be starting to go gray, I don't expect to dye my hair to cover it but I might start messing around with hair color for shits and giggles, maybe maroon or something. I'll have more wrinkles, but hopefully I'll wear them well.

Money is still tighter than we'd like, but it's enough to do the things we want to do. There won't be enough for inheritances or anything like that. It shows up in fits and bursts as I get books done and he does major consulting gigs, which really isn't the best way to manage things but we always sucked at that.

If there are affordable robots that are even semi-intelligent, we have one. I exorcise my "WHERE ARE MY GRANDBABIES?" demons by treating it like another child, teaching it things I think are interesting and fostering its communication skills and sense of self-identity. One of my kids will be finally considering babies of their own at that point, but I don't want to pressure them.

[Reginald Ret]

Anyway, basically, my question is...
what do you look like in 20 years?
What do you do for fun?
What have you accomplished in your life?
Who are your friends?
What is your economic status?

I am 50 by then.
I finally caved and started caring for how I look, but the decades of heavy drinking have ruined my body. I have an alcoholic's face on a body broken by physical labor.
I have as much fun as i had 20 years ago, which is to say: none, nothing seems like much fun anymore.
I managed to destroy my back which made it impossible to compensate for my lack of leadership skills by doing all the work myself, The company won't fire me though they want to.
My friends are about 80% the same as i have now, some new and some old ones have lost contact, maybe one or two ceased to be friends because we had a fight.
I Will still be as badly paid as i am now but i managed to pay part of my student loan back by then.

[Suu]

I'll play.

what do you look like in 20 years?: I'll be fully gray, as genetics dictates, but aging well like my parents and my family does in general. I'll probably have more tattoos and dress well for my age working at some museum or college.
What do you do for fun?: I'm still in the SCA. I'm a duchess by this point. I write annual publications on Roman and Byzantine history.
What have you accomplished in your life?: I have several degrees and have worked a plethora of jobs before landing a "career." Years of hard work and dedication do pay off.
Who are your friends?: Hopefully the same friends I have now, give or take a few. I'm not one to mingle with the brass, so I probably just hang out with who I know and still do terrible shenanigans to others who deserve it.
What is your economic status?: Middle class and still paying off student loans.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Anyway, basically, my question is...
what do you look like in 20 years?
What do you do for fun?
What have you accomplished in your life?
Who are your friends?
What is your economic status?

A horrible and boneless sack of skin.

With any luck at all, I'll be playing with my grandchildren for fun.

As much fun as possible.

I wish I would still have the same friends I have now.

I have NO CLUE.  Also not too worried about it.


The short and skinny is, in 20 years, I'll be 65.  I had NO IDEA how I was gonna think at 45 when I was 25, so I really can't say too much.  I'd like for there to be a world worth living in, and a pile of grandchildren to corrupt.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Okay, less flippant answer (guilty of skimming threads before I leave for work)

what do you look like in 20 years?

I can only assume my face will continue to degenerate at the alarming rate it's been going the last decade or so. Also baldness but I've been buzzcutting it for a while now so it wont be that much of a deal. Body-wise, I'd expect it will still be pretty ripped.

What do you do for fun?

Same as now - Kayaking although, when I'm 64, I'll prolly be more focussed on touring than rough water. Don't think I'll last more than another decade in the big stuff but maybe I'll surprise myself.

What have you accomplished in your life?

House on an island, the fuck away from densely populated areas. I will be happier and less inclined to want to disembowel practically everyone I see.

Who are your friends?

Other kayakers. Other islanders. Freaks from the internets.

What is your economic status?

Immune. I don't really give much of a fuck about money at the moment, Id like to spend even less time thinking about it as I get older

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I like all these answers! One of the things that triggered this question is research (I'll try to dig it up) that shows that people make better life decisions when they have a sense of their future self. Of course, that's just correlation; we have no way of knowing whether it's because people in shitty situations where long-term decision making is impaired can't imagine a future self, or whether it's because imagining a future self helps engender good decision-making, but it's an interesting correlation nonetheless.

I suspect it may be both, and I suspect that imagining your future self may be a beneficial exercise.


For myself:

what do you look like in 20 years?
In 20 years my hair will be completely white, and I will rock it in a giant curly mane when it isn't in a bun. I'll be a little bit plump but in fine shape. My face will look the same, my family doesn't wrinkle until we hit our 70's.

What do you do for fun?
Go hiking, explore the city, throw dinner parties with friends, and play with my grandkids. Oh, also piss people off on the internet, which will become increasingly hilarious (to me) as I appear increasingly grandmotherly.

What have you accomplished in your life?
Hopefully a Nobel prize for my neuroscience research, but at the very least I will have published several books and toured the world lecturing. I won't be a Neil Degrasse Tyson, no household name, but other scientists will know who I am and respect my work. I will be fabulous and pretty and loud and inspire a whole generation of little girls and unmarried mothers to pursue the sciences. Also I will have a very stuffy-sounding hyphenated name.

Who are your friends?
The same lovely lovely wonderful people who are my friends now, with a few additions I'll have picked up over the years. Hopefully without many losses.

What is your economic status?
Out of debt and pulling a solid low six figures, with a husband in the same boat. Stable and well-off enough to help my kids out, as well as the steady stream of foster kids I will most likely be sheltering out of a maternal urge I can't seem to switch off.

[Kai]

I'll be nearly 50.

Let's assume the ideal here, since this is all a big what if scenario and research shows we underestimate how much we'll be different in the future.

1) I look pretty much the same, except...clearer. Same long hair, same glasses, same dressing style, but a clearer face. I'm also in better shape, having done T'ai Chi Chu'an every day for the past 20 years, to the point I no longer have back problems. There are other parts to this but I don't really feel comfortable talking about it right now.

2) I don't expect to take up skydiving or anything outrageous. I still enjoy reading and writing, playing instruments and singing. I'm more adventurous in terms of hiking, maybe even to the point of doing cross country backpacking. I always did say I'd do the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin, so maybe I've done it by that point.

3) I'm employed by a major museum. Chicago is ideal, DC is also right up there. I've completed at least /two/ major taxonomic revisions, including a boatload of species new to science. I'm a respected expert in several groups of insects, and an advocate for natural history and museums.

4) I'm living with my current partner, and her partner. We've found some way to work this out, even with our families, and we've developed a social group that coincides with our interests. Our friends are geeks and nerds, but frankly, those sorts of people are the most interesting.

5)My economic status isn't much different than grad school. Museum staff/curators don't get paid much. Still, I have carried my frugality from grad school, paid all my debts, and am happy with my situation.


I don't know anyone at that age who I really identify with.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I hope this all gets archived somewhere so we can look at this thread in 20 years and compare notes.

20 years ago, I was online with a group of people I am still connected to today. In fact, many of them have become my closest friends. One of them is now my ex-husband, one is my best friend, and another is my current paramour. They have become my closest community. Last week, we roasted a pig, and people came from the East coast, Puget Sound, and San Francisco just to hang out and party together.

People pooh-pooh this online shit, pixels on a screen and all that, but when it's used to forge social connections it's an incredibly effective people-connecter, and I suspect that most of us will still be talking to each other in 20 years. Strange as that may sound.