When I was younger, I thought being an adult would be so cool. You got to do whatever you wanted, live wherever you wanted, and just hang out. Once I actually grew up, though, I realized that this stuff was a lot different than I’d anticipated:
- School was the easy part. When you’re younger, school seems so boring. I always thought once I was out of school, the fun part would being. There wouldn’t be any more tests or homework, and life would be a piece of cake. Boy was I wrong. Looking back, I had it pretty good in school. Even when I was in college, I had maybe two or three classes per day and never woke up before 9am. But once you’re an adult, things change real quick. I would love to have that kind of freedom again.
- You have to think for yourself. It sounds like a good thing, right? But what they don’t tell you is that you’re basically all on your own and you’ve got to figure stuff out by yourself. Life can throw some pretty tough stuff at you sometimes, and it’s 100 percent up to you to get yourself out of those situations. No one is gonna do it for you — you’re an adult now, remember? So you have to start thinking like one.
- You have to start planning for the future. In school, they never really teach you how to save money for the future or create a plan that will ensure your success. Once you start adult life, everybody will tell you you’d better start planning for the future. You have to start working now to figure out how you’re going to support yourself and figure out how you’ll handle the rest of your life.
- You lose some friends. As you get older, your friends will start to drift away. You’ll start to see a lot less of even the childhood friends you swore you’d never pull apart from. Everyone goes off and does their own thing and lives their own lives. There will, of course, be people who stick around, but if you don’t live in the same place, it’s a lot harder to stay in touch all the time. You just have to accept the fact that you’ll lose some friends.
- It’s hard to make new friends. One of the worst parts about losing old friends is that it can be super hard to actually make new friends as an adult. No one really tells you how to make friends outside of school. Meeting new friends is a lot like dating — you have to try to find someone and then ask them to do something with you. And who knows if their personality will match yours? It’s all pretty much a guessing game.
- Dating is lame. If you didn’t like dating in high school or college, good luck with dating in the adult world. It’s hard to meet people, and when you do find someone to date, then you have to go through the hassle of coordinating your schedules and finding a time to actually meet. The whole thing is just frustrating and overrated if you ask me.
- You won’t have it all figured out. When you’re younger, you think that by the time you’re an adult, you’ll know exactly what you’re doing. It’s a pretty big wake-up call when you turn 25 and you don’t have the slightest clue what you’re doing with your life. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. I’m a firm believer that you don’t have to have it all figured out. Just don’t get so stressed out about it.
- Taxes suck. When you’re a kid, you don’t have to worry about paying bills or making money, and you definitely don’t have to worry about paying taxes. It’s like the one big secret that nobody warns you about. You may be making some great money, but then you pay your taxes and the government takes it all away. But with a little help from some friends or expensive accountants, you can get all that tax stuff figured out.
- You don’t get as much vacation. Adult life always seemed like a great time from my perspective. I always thought I would get to go on vacation whenever I wanted. But then the harsh reality sets in that you only get so much vacation time, and there are rules on when and how you can spend it. Life isn’t a beach… at least for more than two pre-planned weeks out of the year.
- You’ll go through tough stuff. When you’re young, your parents will usually protect you from all the crap that life can dish out. But once you’re grown, there’s nothing standing between you and your problems. You’ll deal with a lot of garbage and have to grow up faster than you might’ve anticipated, but it’s all going to work out in the end.
