If anyone tells you that your teenage years are the best years of your life: Smile, nod, and slowly back away. Then never talk to that person again if you can help it.

Yeah when I grew up I was a confused bag of hormones who had not yet learnt to deal with anything.

And sometimes it's both simultaneously.

Even if it was your mommy?

I can't remember which movie, but some basic rom-com. Girl was in a fight with her ex and trying to make him feel bad said, "I gave you the best years of my life."

And dude, utterly confused, responds, "those were your best?"

The movie was forgettable, but that absolutely savage line stuck with me.

Especially if it's your mommy

The whole "high school is the best years of your life" thing was always total bullshit. The drugs are much better in college.

I was less impressed when I learned that all the actors in that scene were on bicycle seats. But then I was more impressed when I learned they only had one ladder to let them down to take a pee.

Another fun Life of Brian fact: the production re-used the Tunisian sets built for Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth television series. Zeffirelli was furious that the Tunisian authorities allowed this; he apparently did not know how money works.

Anyone who says 'These years are the best of your life' are really just telling you that their life peaked at that age.

If you play your cards right and have a large serving of luck, this will not be true for you.

Don't listen to people who peaked during high school.

I've never really had much of a family. The whole family bond thing seems like a farce. I love my parents because they were good parents, not simply because they were my parents.

Brightside is life expectancy is on a downward trend!

There are certain unique experiences you don't get later. There are a few places that have field trips in college, but for most people that is only during regular primary school.

Nah dawg 30s is where it's at so far. (I'm 30s)

It's rose-tinted glasses in play as well. I have many fond memories of my university days and deeply miss all the time I had with my friends that I now rarely see. I would encourage any student to cherish that aspect. There were many, many, difficult aspects of that time as well though, and a decade or so on I deeply appreciate the autonomy I have now.

My experience is the opposite. Adolescence was horrible, young adulthood was hard, adulthood has been better. I am taking care of myself and I am happy with my relationships.

Kate & Leopold (2001)

Kate: I wasted the best years of my life on you.

Stuart: Those were your best years?

The nature of those unique experiences varies from person to person. My field trips might have been good memories had it not been for the fact that the horrible assholes I was stuck going to school with were there.

Fuck all the adults who say this to kids with less privileged childhoods.

This all or nothing thinking often just turns into an excuse for doing nothing.

I can make a better world by making things better in my immediate vicinity, without dying for it. I can help one person at a time, and it might not scale to some kind of globally noticeable improvement, but it can still a difference to each of those people, and was worth whatever effort or sacrifice involved.