Life experience

My earlier post got me thinking about life experiences.

I know this guy, an acquaintance really. And because I actually think he's quite a nice person, I'll do the unusual and give him a pseudonym. Let's call him.... Frank.

One day I was speaking to Frank, and I was telling him all about crazy things I had done when I was a teenager. I covered all the typical, dyeing my hair crazy colours, getting tattoos, piercings, getting drunk, sneaking out, stealing traffic cones... the usual stuff people do when they're going through their rebellious phase.

Frank, on the other hand, didn't drink til he was 18, hadn't done anything like that, hell, didn't even have a rebellious phase.

Which led me to thinking... is it necessary to do all this stuff when you're young? Or is it only so because society has led us to believe that once we reach a certain age, we're expected to behave a certain way?

For people like me, who have done the 'phase', will we find it easier to settle down and behave ourselves? And for people like Frank, are they expected to have a mid -life crisis?

Maybe we should all forget about doing the crazy thing, doing the behaved thing and just do our thing.

How does one define life experience anyway? Isn't life, in itself, life experience enough? Does it really matter how you live your life, as long as you live it the way you want to?

Happy New Year everyone.
I truly hope it'll be a great one for everyone.