Wondering...what were we all doing at aged 22

[julesapple]

When I think back 24 years, I realise just how easy it was to get a flat, a job (even if it wasn't your chosen career, but enough to pay the bills) and even run a little car. You could go far on the minimum of £2 petrol the pumps would pay out. A Uni friend of mine had a mews flat above garages just off the Kelvin Road in Glasgow (v posh....) he shared it with five other students and I think their rent was about £60 a month - Paul paid about £15 a week and that covered all the bills too. That was 1982/3.

Our flat in Celle was about £30 a week rent, the monthly utility bills were really low, even in the depths of snowy Winters I don't think our electric bill was more than £15 a month and all of our heating was plug in radiators filled with oil (or something). Food was cheap, especially at the Saturday morning market - you could eat a decent lunch from all the free samples the stallholders handed out!

The BH's job wasn't hugely high paid but we did ok. We had enough to start saving, we had enough to fund our social life, to travel a bit.

The cost of living was just so much cheaper back then.

[mrbadexample]

I had given up all hope of uni*, and was living in a shared house in Maidstone,

When I was 22 I think I was drilling holes in the Stoneborough Centre. Did it have scaffolding up when you were there?

[Glutton4...]

I was better off at 22 than ever! Single. Still lived at home. Secure full-time job, and a part-time Pub job. Plenty of money. Great social life. Had a sports car. Had a horse. Had a waistline! Still had a long thick mane of hair back then, too! Never put on weight. Never got hangovers.

Wish I hadn't thought back that far, now...

[Rabidbun]

Aged 22 years huh. Final year at uni in Scotland and living with my husband (though we didn't marry or have our wee ones for ages) - could only cook basic foods and was very naive and unconfident compared to now. Worked at a car hire firm in the holidays doing general admin and phone work.

Have learned a lot since then and always working at being a better person (though I still swear at the veg if they try and die ).

[Newton]

I had just been accepted for my degree course at poly and was working at a local estate agents to get experience after working as an accounts clerk in limbo for 3 years. I did not know what I wanted to do career wise before then. Career wise.... Such a waste of 3years in retrospect.

I was in said limbo because I lost my girlfriend to a fatal car injury at 18. Some b.....d drunk driver mowed her and two uni mates down and killed all three. Hit and run! They got him and gave him 12 months! I was devastated.

Ater that , in my limbo, i played squash and snooker and generally mucked around living at home at the time. 1985.

[zazen999]

When I was 22 I think I was drilling holes in the Stoneborough Centre. Did it have scaffolding up when you were there?

I lived there for a fair few years and remember some out the entrance way - although to be honest I avoided it where possible.

[zazen999]

I was in said limbo because I lost my girlfriend to a fatal car injury at 18. Some b.....d drunk driver mowed her and two uni mates down and killed all three. Hit and run! They got him and gave him 12 months! I was devastated.

12 months for killing 3 people. Good grief.

[julesapple]

Oh Newt - how awful for everyone concerned. So young too, it's heart-breaking. (((((HUGS))))))

[Pa Snips]

At 22 years of age I was living in a council flat with my wife and was working in a local warehouse. I left my mothers home at the age of 17. Life wasn't easy but is it really supposed to be? I had lived through squatting in an abandoned bedsit, being unemployed and losing nearly everything I owned to burglers in my first flat, so having a home and a job felt good - even though times were hard and we had to be careful with every penny. Moving 'back home' was never an option and not something that I would have considered even if it had been an option.

[mrswadders]

I was married at 20, baby at 21. I think we lived off minced beef! Husband wasn't over-enthusiastic at work - at one point had 4 part time jobs to help ends meet. Present husband a much better model

now this sounds very familiar!!!!!!

[janeyo]

It was my 4th and final year at uni and I was flat broke because my 3rd year at uni was spent in France and cost a flaming fortune!

Graduated in the June then got a job working with the MOD for a year to support going to teacher training college the following year.

[di]

I got a job as nanny in Istanbul, potentially a very well paid job with board and keep part of the package. Beautiful as the city was I couldn't stand the way they used their other staff (servants) and taught their kiddies to spit at beggars...who were actually selling their wears and not begging at all
So, I packed my bags and got on a bus full of Turkish men and had a seventeen hour journey to surprise my sister in Marmaris. Managed to get a very low paid job there (Turkish wage) which was made worse by just how much the English holiday reps got...both in wages and ripping off local market men. Regardless of that, had an absolutely excellent time, until my boss had an accident and I found myself at gun point...that was when I headed home and spent a few weeks with my parents before moving into a room with friends.

[VirginVegGrower]

By 22 I was living overseas and scratting around for work, having given up a damned good career in purchasing...don't ask. We lived in a tent on a beach at one point. But at 18 I was travelling from 6:15am to get to my desk for 9am at a job that was only 30 miles down the road. The journey back home was even longer. I tipped over my rent money to my mum, although to be fair she didn't request that much. I spent Saturday mornings learning how to drive, paying for my own lessons (not so many do these days), bought my first car and then took my mum out everywhere, once I passed. My first job was at 14 on a market stall butchers - hated it, but had to stick at it as I wanted some spends and my mum was widowed by this point. Life is hard and I am thankful I learned that early on or I would not have been able to get through the **** that was to come later. You have to have the lows to appreciate the highs IMHO.

[Mikey]

Ahh....I was carefree, and spent most of my time dancing through the flowers. No, No that's not right, I was very very very drunk.

[Alison]

Finished uni just before my 22 birthday and moved up to Warrington as that was where I could find a job. Didn't know anybody here so rented a room in a shared house. Soon made loads of friends and used to go out every night - have no idea how I a) had the energy or b) afforded it as I wasn't on much money. Supposed my rent was cheap and I lived on pasta. Gradually moved into better houses with less people until I was able to buy my own in 1996, OH moved in a couple of years later and can't see us moving . Don't go out nearly as much these days though as can't cope with partying on a work night!