Does anyone wish they were in college again?

sounds like OP needs to change locations job and friend group.

Let's see. Go back to when I was broke had to spend $40/week or less on all the food I ate except for food we got while traveling for meets: No thank you! Did I have fun hanging out with friends 24/7 for 4 years?: sure.
Did I love having to work ~25 hours/week take classes and homework for 2 STEM majors. I probably slept 6.5 hours. everyday I had to show up for something for 4 years straight or else I would end up in poverty like my parents
But once I graduated got a decent paying job I traveled all of the US and world. Work friends were fun to travel and party with. With life being less stressful with no classes, no homework, and no minimum wage job to pay for rent gas and food my running has improved dramatically. I'm in my early 30s I'm faster than I was when I graduated (except at the 1500). I don't have to worry about my next meal.. I don't have to worry if I get fired tomorrow. I have a roof over my head with a mostly payed off house I have hobbies and a significant other (didn't have time/money for that in college). I take big trips now plus a few small ones each year (left the country over 20 times in the last decade). The social and friends part now: I am introverted. I get 8 hours of interacting with people at work I have my own group of friends and honestly I am happiest with maybe one non-running friend interaction a month. anymore than that is stressful. but I run 2 times a day so plenty of time for the people that do want to hang out with me to socialize with me.

College experience is drastically different when you have just a bit of money. but the sacrifices I payed for then have translated to huge gains in the quality of my life today which also includes my running.

Do I love my current company: No don't really love the company or the job but I like the work and it pays for a lifestyle and gives me plenty of PTO.

First job out of college was a great place to work but not the best pay but I obviously made it work and had a blast.

Does more money always solve problems?: no
Is there a certain amount that solves the majority of problems: Absolutely!

It's an interesting question. Given the chance, I would not get hammered once a week or so. It didn't exactly help the running/racing!

At least I stuck to beer and avoided hard liquor.

Yep as much fun as it is to be a broke ass student and maybe go out to the club to meet a moody girl adult relationships are far more rewarding.

I'm actually a much faster runner as a 'real' adult too - more time to train, more money for massages, super shoes, and if you find a good run club you get meaningful relationships, good competition, but none of the bs where you're competing for roster spots.

I loved college but hated the uncertainty with finding a spouse and making a living looming in the near future. My favorite part of life is right now - shortly after retirement.

Getting older is OK, if you do exactly what you want to do. I got sucked into a traditional and conventional path that was a bad fit for me, and I was not loving life either. But I fixed, it and now life is awesome.

Thank you so much for this. I'm 53 and apparently life isn't kicking my ass as much as it is yours. You've got to be in infinitely better physical shape than I am and I don't have as negative an attitude as you do. You made me feel better about my situation.

But seriously, dude you are under 35. If I was able to go back to college again, I'd take it in a heartbeat, but I'd also be totally satisfied being under 35 again. I used to do all kinds of physically demanding things like extreme skiing, and I'm now rediscovering my passion for it again by watching people do it on YouTube. My body will never be able to do that again. Yours can still do pretty much everything, so enjoy it now while it lasts instead of crying about not being 20. Your body will hold up for quite a while if you take care of it, but eventually you reach a point where there are things you can't (or shouldn't) do. I can probably still get down a nasty slope but the odds of severe injury are much higher now and I'm pretty sure a day of skiing the way I used to would at the minimum leave me physically torn up to the point that I could maybe only do it once a year (used to go several times a week)

Whether life gets better or worse depends on your choices. Sometimes a good choice (e.g. having children) means years of boredom and toil before it pays off. I had to work endless hours to support my kids and give them a good education. Pretty much gave up all my hobbies. But I'm coaching my daughter now and watching her wreck her PRs week after week. It's pretty damn satisfying. After my kids move on to college (2 more years for the last one), I'll have tons of free time again and can start being more selfish with my activities. You have to accept your situation and take pride in your role as the provider. Grow up and kick ass at that. I'm happy knowing that I'll be a legend to my grandchildren and onward because I kicked ass for my kids and set them up for a great life.

I'm 66 and I agree with you. I will say this:

There are things I regret and would have done differently if I could do them again BUT I see where I am now and I'm happy.

I wouldn't want to change the steps I took and the decisions I made to get me here.

Only with the world experience and willingness to listen and compromise that I have now that I'm almost twice as old as when I graduated.

This! I just wish I could physically do half the stuff I used to be able to do while in college

I also ski, and I've always avoided big jumps and extreme terrain. But even then, the day will come when you and I have skied our last runs, and it's just one more in a series of lasts. Last time running a sub 17 5K, last time doing 70+ mpw, last time winning the local turkey trot. First the PRs go, then the hard training goes, then the skiing goes, then the hearing, eyesight, and teeth go. What good does the future bring? In college, everything was likely to be better than the previous year (or at least offered a fresh start), and when you talked about long-term plans, you'd bring up things like getting that dream job or moving across the country, and not wills, estate planning, and hip replacements.

Seeing other people accomplish stuff may bring joy, but it isn't as good as accomplishing them yourself. If the choices were mutually exclusive and I was forced to pick, I'd rather set a PR than see someone else set a PR, even if that person were my best friend. Be honest, if you had the genetics and opportunity, which would you choose, seeing your kid win an Olympic gold, or winning that gold medal yourself?

Along with the fact that time travel and reverse-aging are not yet available to us, I think if you tried harder at that age you'd be less inclined to pine for it. I had a blast growing up and never thought about going back in time to relive any of it. I like now. I spent my life putting a focused effort in everything I did so I wouldn't say "I wish I tried harder" when I got older. It's a big world and there are still unlimited possibilities and maybe trying something completely new to you might satisfy that itch. Appreciate the good people and good things in the life you live now.

You can't think that way. My story is written, I didn't win an Olympic gold. There are a whole lot of things I hoped to do that I didn't do, and never will (yes, that part sucks). There are an awful lot of crazy experiences I've had that I never would have expected, some good, some bad. When/if I tell my life story to my grandchildren I'm pretty sure they'll be fascinated because I haven't had a routine life (I traveled all over for work, etc). I made sure to make my life as interesting as possible. But my child's story is not written and I am enjoying seeing how her story turns out. If she wins an Olympic gold, that would be pretty cool, but nobody is expecting that and I'm hopeful she will find something more meaningful to do than run around in a circle, even though she's enjoying that a lot right now.

We move through phases in life. The worst part about getting older is acquiring wisdom that would have helped you when you were younger. The only way to mitigate that frustration is to share your knowledge with someone who can still use it. I do that with my daughter and she is avoiding every mistake I made growing up. That is how I find satisfaction. My older daughter wasn't interested in any of my wisdom. She's doing fine but going through life the way I did, learning everything in the school of hard knocks. I survived and so will she, and I'm sure she will also share her wisdom in the future to avoid living with regrets.

So my advice to you, presumably much younger than me, is to deliberately use the time you have to enjoy great experiences. Put yourself out there and do things you are interested in, as much as possible. If you are interested in physical things, do more of that while you still can.

When I was in college I had a teammate who was kind of obsessed with the idea of doing outdoors stuff (fishing, etc). He hadn't really done it yet and kept wanting to plan a fishing trip. I told him "no way I want to sit around fishing, I can do that when I'm old".

Figure out what you can only do now, and what you can do when you're old, and make your plans around what you can do now.

If people are talking to you about wills and hip replacements, it's because you didn't do anything interesting to talk about. At work I talk about all the places I visited (most of the people I work with have traveled extensively as it is/was part of our jobs), crazy times I had in Europe when I was young and single, etc. You have to do interesting things if you want to talk about interesting things.

Some of us simply need to move to more "open minded" (?) places where people are more adventurous.

I've done plenty of interesting things, but interest from others is low. I once did a weekend trip to Germany on a whim just to check out Oktoberfest, but everyone here gave me strange looks and thought that it was a waste of money since you could just go to the local dive bar instead. I told them I saw the northern lights on the flight there ("you can also see those in Ohio, right?") and drove over 120 mph on the Autobahn, but they still weren't interested. Forget about international trips, most of them have never even left the state.

This is the same type of crowd who prefers chain restaurants and wouldn't want to try something different like an ostrich burger from a hole-in-the-wall place. The posters on here are right, I need to move.

Even the old guys that lie and say they like being old and would never go back are full of $h!t.

EVERYONE wishes they were younger. Just being young enough to not have the daily body aches is enough to wish you were 25 again.

I'm 37 and have spent the last decade wishing I could be 21 again. I didn't even do anything fun in the summer - just worked crappy jobs and ran. Unless you get mega rich - which would have already happened if you had the ability - the best years of your life are in the rear view, even if you meet your soulmate or have kids, maybe especially if either of those occur. Best you can do now is move to a city or town that works well for your interests and maximize your free time.

This right here. Everything matters and is important when you're in college. Afterwards, you probably spend the days making money for some millionaire and have to manage free time (especially if you still run). After running its like pick one hobby - sure you can read about Napoleonic France, but then you can't try out that new restaurant or take photos of the blood moon, etc. if you are lucky and can live efficiently enough to even have time for anything but an hour of tv after running. And if you have kids, whelp that is now your only hobby (other than doing things around the house for the better part of the next 18 years).

I think Mick Jagger said that 22 is the best age because anyone just slightly younger than you is "just a kid" and anyone just slightly older is "an old fart".

I think that's a pretty accurate observation. When you're 22 you see HS seniors as kids, but you see people that have graduated and starting life (job, married, maybe even having a kid) to be old and boring.

I'd love to be that age just to have the energy, and lack of physical ailments that come with middle age.

I’d hate to be college aged now. Even if you check all the boxes and do the right things with focus and purpose; there is a high likelihood that you’ll never progress past a $50k job, ever be able to get a house let alone live in an apartment by yourself, or do better than your parents.

Even with the Great Recession in my college days of 2008-2012 I felt good about the world getting better and being able to get the same or better quality of life than my parents and the last generation.

But not for the people just starting out now.

Forget the time travel, reverse-aging is all I need. I loved my college XC and track days and still race occasionally, but if you offered me a pill that gave me an 18-year old body in 2025, I'd take it even if I could never run a sub 6 mile again, had to choose a different career, and had to give up my entire life savings.

There are just too many hobbies and activities to squeeze into an 80ish year lifespan. And to make things worse, some of those years are virtually useless (i.e., age 2) or come with severe restrictions (age 79). Competitive running may be a "been there, done that" thing, but what about other sports? I'm not interested in the mainstream ones and almost never watch the World Series, World Cup, NBA Finals, or Superbowl, but I'd be curious to see how I would have done as a speed skater or track cyclist even if I have no chances of ever becoming an elite.

And there would be more time to do other things. If you've spent a large portion of your free time on something like reaching the highest point in all 50 states, you wouldn't need to do it again (unless there were a few mountains that you really liked) and could explore and focus on other goals like skiing all of the resorts in North America, running across the country, or doing something else that requires a lot of time, money, and physical ability.