The Biggest Misconceptions People Had About Adulthood

Staying Up Late

"I thought that I could stay up as late as I wanted. I envisioned myself adventuring all over town until the wee hours, meeting interesting people and experiencing life."

"Turns out 'as late as I wanted' is about 8:00 PM after a quiet night in with my girlfriend and a cup of tea."

- Calm-Ad6493

Going By Too Fast

"Time. It turns out adulthood is stuck on fast forward."

- VegetableTears

"Boy! Is this ever true! A week used to crawl by and now you blink your eyes and it's, 'Is it (choose a day) again already?'"

"Summers were almost never ending and now they are over in a blink of the eye!"

- miffsc

Lots of Guesswork Included

"I always thought that adults knew what they were doing."

- sorengray

"We're all winging it. Most of us are competent at certain s**t and can function day to day. I've been in my field for nearly five years now and work with people in my field that have been in it for nearly forty years. I'm not bad at what I do and they're great at it."

"We still end up scratching our heads, wondering what the h**l we should do next on a project, because that s**t's just weird."

- thewaterglizzy

Forever High School

"I thought graduating high school meant I'd be out of high school. It turns out that all of life is high school. I'm still dealing with the exact same problems except even fewer people care."

- Individual_Speech_10

"That was the biggest disappointment of my life. As a kid growing up, I absolutely hated most other kids for all the bulls**t mind games, bullying, playing favorites, etc. I couldn't wait to be an adult where that all stopped, life was fair, and bad people were brought to justice."

"Holy f**k was I ever wrong. As you said, adults are just kids in grown-up bodies as nothing else has changed."

- ZiggerTheNaut

Full-Circle Moment

"I was always a little salty that my dad was kind of a goofball. He'd play pranks and s**t and you couldn't confide anything seriously in him like you had a crush on a girl or something, because he'd make fun of you."

"I wanted a dad like in the movies where they put you up on their lap and say, 'Now listen here sport...+ and go into some kind of sage-like monologue on how to handle life's problems."

"Then I got to be an adult and I'm EXACTLY like my dad. And so is every other adult male I know."

- SweetCosmicPope

So Much Free Time!

"You could do anything you wanted, whenever you wanted."

"I never have the time between working full time and being exhausted the rest of the time, lol (laughing out loud)."

- ravynmaxx

Owning a Home

"Homeownership apparently, lol (laughing out loud)."

- Gentleman_T-Bone

"I came here to say this! Embarrassing, I even thought I'd have like a beach house as well. I was so dumb."

- PumpkinPieIsGreat

"Growing up, I was told I may inherit my parent's house one day. I was grateful but wasn't that excited because it was a small house on a small property and I always wanted a nice piece of land."

"Now home prices in that area are creeping into the high six-figure range and I'd be over the moon to have it."

- slinkocat

Hard Work Means Success

"If you work hard and give everything you got, then you’ll succeed and get what you worked so hard for."

- Useful_Dane_319

"As someone who works in finance, the most valuable lesson I've learned is that money doesn't come from hard work, it comes from the presence of existing money."

"Wall Street bros who make seven figures don't work any harder than your average teacher or public servant busting their butt making 50 thousand a year at best."

- AdmiralPlant

A Living Wage

"I thought that most jobs actually paid a living wage. When I was a pre-teen, I thought that all you had to do was show up to basically any job clean, polite (and don't be a total id**t obviously, but you don't have to be Einstein either), and work 40 hours a week, and you would have everything you need."

- True-Sound-9240

Easier After Graduation

"I was under the false impression that having a job would be less stressful than going through school."

- Friendly_Neighbor12

"Well, it depends. Until I was 14, I used to go to school from 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM with an hour to get lunch. When I got home, I still had to do homework or study for tests. Now I work the same amount of hours but when I finish working, I'm free to do whatever I want. So I would say at least in my case that school was way more stressful."

- CollapseIntoNow

Happily Ever After

"I thought you'd always have a relationship and money and you lived happily ever after."

- llcucf80

Chronic Illness

"I thought that your body would remain healthy. I got chronically sick in my late 20s (27+). I'm 33 now, and I hate it. Docs still don’t know what’s up. SMH (Shaking my head)."

- xAdrtxx

Natural Obstacles

"I believed quicksand would be a real concern."

- Euclid_Interloper

"I thought being on fire would be a more common occurrence, what with how often we were taught about stop, drop, and roll."

- anonymousbach

​Professionally Independent 

"I used to think adults had autonomy in their jobs. Like, as a professional who went to college, your expertise and knowledge would be sought after and people would treat you with respect. But no, we're just capitalist pawns."

- Majestic_Heart_9271

Actually Much Better Than Expected

"That it would be zero fun and all bills."

"This is way better and more carefree than childhood! No one controls me and I don’t have to babysit anyone if I don’t want to! No one yells at me and I can 'talk back' if I want to!"

"I can just… be. I don’t have to beg and plead to leave the house and see friends."

- Dom-Franson

"I think this ALL the time. I'll be having the time of my life just... I don't know, WEARING SHORTS IN PUBLIC, or HANGING OUT WITH SOMEONE THAT ISN'T A FAMILY MEMBER, or something absolutely crazy like that, at almost 30 years old, and think, 'Wait, why were all the adults in my life when I was little telling me adulthood would suck so much because I would have to figure everything out for myself?'"

"That's the part I love the most about adulthood. No controlling, narcissistic, emotionally abusive a**holes around to dictate my every move and tell me I'm a worthless female. H**l, I don't even have to speak to them as an adult!"

- thatonespicegirl

For most, adulthood fell far short of what their childhood dreams called for.

But a few loved the independence that came with adulthood after having traumatic childhoods.

This is one of those concepts that is all about perspective, and all we can really do is try to make the best of it.