Being 18-25 is like playing a video game where you’ve skipped the tutorial and you’re just sort of running about with no idea how anything works
Being 25-30 is like later on in the game when you’ve figured out how things work, but have made poor leveling decisions along the way and are now horribly underpowered for what you’re supposed to be doing.
Being 30-35 is like that bit in the game where you mostly know what you’re doing and have fixed a few of the levelling issues, but still can’t do anything because you don’t have any gold or mana left.