Normal for My Age

[image error] Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be someone else for a day? Well, of course you have. You're a writer. What I think would be so wonderful about it would be the chance to get perspective on your own head and your own experience. To see how other people see the world. Do they see people the same way you do? Which of your habits are just habits and which are neurosis? Do you come across way more snarky or shy or loud then you think you do? 
So a lot of these things you just can't know. You can't see yourself from the outside, which I think is probably a blessing for most of us. We all probably have way more neurosis than we think we do, but I also think its more okay than we think it is. It would probably surprise us, though it shouldn't, how quirky and messed up everybody else is too.
I think there is one thing I would like to try, though. We can't compare brains, but maybe we can sort of compare experiences. I don't mean compare in a vertical sense, as in one type of experience is better than another. I actually have quite the vendetta against that line of thinking: one persons struggles and joys and obsessions and heartbreaks and traumas are just as intense and valid as anybody else's. But they are wide in variety and type. While everybody's day equals one day, nobody experiences the same things in that day or even experiences the same thing in the same way. 
So. When you were my age, twenty-three, who and where were you? Where did you live? Where did you work? Where was your family? What was your relationship status? Who were your friends? And if you are younger than I am, who and where are you now, for me to gauge my younger self.
As much as I am trying to deny it, I suppose I am in a sense seeking validation by asking this question. I want to make sure I'm not behind the norm, make sure I'm doing okay and am on the right path, make sure I'm not doing something I shouldn't. On the other hand, though, I don't think there is a "norm." We're all different, and that's as it should be. Regardless, I still think its an interesting exercise.
Sarah Allen