I am in a swimming pool, making fun of a sentence we hear so often that it starts to sound like a rule: your twenties are the best years of your life.

From where I am standing in my thirties, that does not match my experience. I feel more mature, further along and able to imagine things I could not imagine before. The tone of the video is playful, but the point matters: do not grieve an entire future because one birthday has passed.

This is my experience. It is not a finding that everybody becomes happier, wealthier or healthier in their thirties.

A good decade is not a competition

There can be things you miss about being younger. More freedom in one part of life. A particular group of friends. The first version of something that later became familiar.

You can value those memories without making them evidence that everything afterwards is a decline. In the video I encourage people to keep developing, making things and collecting experience. I am interested in what is still possible, not in awarding one decade a trophy.

The opposite claim would be just as narrow: “Your thirties must be better.” Someone facing loss, illness or a difficult transition does not need another age-based expectation to fail. A birthday tells us how long somebody has lived; it does not tell us the conditions they are living in.

Questions beyond the birthday. Experience: What do I understand better now?. Direction: What would I like to try next?. Presence: What is already worth enjoying today?.
Reflection prompts, not a scale that ranks decades or people.

Replace the age comparison with a useful question

Instead of asking whether you are ahead of the person beside you, try asking what you understand now that you did not understand before. Which decision became easier? Which mistake can you recognise sooner? Which relationship deserves more attention?

Those are reflection prompts, not a scoring system. They make room for forms of progress that do not photograph well: asking for help, changing an unhealthy routine, learning to say what you mean.

An example: somebody starts learning a skill at 32 after spending their twenties on other responsibilities. Calling them “late” tells us almost nothing about the quality of their next year. A useful conversation would ask what they want to learn, what time they can realistically make and who could give them feedback.

That example is invented. Its point is that the next step needs a plan, not permission from an imaginary age limit.

Keep some room for the life you have

There is also a trap in turning every birthday into another improvement project. In the clip, I am enjoying a moment. I am not waiting to finish every goal before allowing myself to say that life can be good.

My advice at 24 is about learning and building. This video adds something beside it: do not use ambition to convince yourself that your current life is merely a waiting room.

Make the effort. Build the experience. Notice the people and moments you would miss if they were gone.

Your twenties can have been good. They do not have to be the last good chapter.

Sources and calculation notes

  • Personal reflection from the original video. The article does not claim a scientifically established “best age,” predict anyone’s future or infer a population trend from my experience. The learning example and prompts are editorial additions.

  • Original video and thumbnail: Eduard Luta on TikTok. Published 2026-06-14. Research checked 27 September 2026.