To what extent do you personally identify with your quadra "age," that is:

alpha-childhood
beta-adolescence
gamma-adulthood
delta-retirement age


Deltas, do you dream of being old enough to retire and just enjoy life simply?
Alphas, do you think that the ideal life, or the part of life you treasure the most is childhood?
Gammas, do you strive to be an adult, looking down on childish pursuits?

I know that personally, I want to be a perpetual adolescent. I have serious issues with myself as a child, serious complaints, and yet I never really want to be old enough to be an adult. I can't even contemplate retiring to Florida, it's just outside of my field of vision (I'll be a poet until I die, certainly). Ideally, I'd be 17 forever (actually, really I'd be 17-23 forever. That's the generally right age to be a good world-changing adolescent. maybe extend it upwards to 25, but 30 is death).

To what extent do people actually identify with their quadra ages, and to what extent are these things purely socially coded. That is, do we all want to be perpetual adolescents because that's what's represented on TV as good? Or is this an area of genuine beta cultural dominance, something that exalts beta attitudes at the expense of other quadra attitudes towards the "stages of life" (especially delta).

Thoughts?