We always wanted to grow up. Looking at the cool and carefree life of adults, we believed that adulting was the milestone and we couldn’t wait to age. Studies, school, college, hanging out with friends, asking for permission from parents, making adjustments on pocket money was too mundane. We wanted to grow up so that we could afford whatever we wanted and do whatever we like. Also, no studies. Adulting was the dreamland – until we became adults.
Now that we are adults, it’s nothing like what we imagined in our late teens or childhood. To be honest, adulting is hard and life was much better in childhood. Alas! Only if we could take hold of a time machine.
So now that we are pretty much adults, we are looking at a lot of things that we never knew would happen. Why? NO ONE TOLD US. Well, we feel you.
In this article, we are summing up the top 23 adulting problems no one discussed with us. Let’s begin
Adulting Problems No One Told Us About
It’s Like a Wedding Marathon
Remember how you used to wait for your 20’s so that you can live your life peacefully? Look at you now, attending wedding after weddings. Every time you open social media, you can see one acquaintance either married or having a kid. It’s like God is running a wedding marathon that doesn’t have an end.
You are Always Tired
Did someone say sleep?
Gone are the days when you could spend the weekends in pubs, get no sleep and still be energetic.
Now, you spend your days so that you can sleep at night. The bed and pillow are likely the best friends you overlooked.
Money? What is That?
The biggest lie about adulting was loads of money. Yes, you have a job and you are earning but you are always broke. The salary kind of vanishes after about five hours of receiving in your account. Where did it go?
You Listen to Friends Ranting About Their Babies
What’s next after marriage? The baby marathon. Your friends started to have children and they keep on telling you about their babies. Their daily adventures with the baby and how beautiful their life is going.
Suddenly, the next question pops up, when are you getting married?
Root Canals
Ouch! It hurts.
The teeth which you have been flaunting. Time to say goodbye because your late 20’s will bring you root canals (lots of them).
Anyway, what’s the big deal? You will come to know once you visit the dentist and he hands over the quotation to you. Good luck!
Not Being Old Enough To Have ‘Five Years’ Required Experience For Jobs But Being Too Old To Be A ‘Graduate’
Now, this is the worst, every job either wants someone with no experience or a Harvard graduate. Where are we? Waiting for our slice.
You Know Nothing About The “Trending” Things These Days
What? Which trends? Are you stupid? Let me sleep.
The Tax Returns
As you are getting paid, you are also having the pleasure to deal with tax. Welcome to the forever adult club. Unfortunately, you can not run away from it.
Purchasing Extra Bed Sheets
As a fully grown-up, you won’t be able to make it home every weekend and spend your days washing. So, what next? Buy extra linen and leave it to God.
Spending Your Money On The Car
Yes! We want a car. We got it. Now, it seems like only the car is living on our salary.
Having to listen to your teacher friends talk about teaching all the live-long day
“Teaching is the best job, you know? “
“You get so much time for yourself”
“Also, you are helping kids and helping the nation”
After all, Padhega India Tabhi Toh Badhega India.
Constantly Waiting To Sit Down
Every day is a long struggle and you can’t wait to finally sit down in the evening with nothing on your mind and have a cup of tea or coffee in silence.
Not Having The Option Of Just Not Going To Work
Remember waking up for college and deciding not to go out of nowhere? Well, if you get a time machine please let us know.
Being Invited To A Never Ending Dinner Party
What is wrong with these over-enthusiastic people? Why can’t they have dinner peacefully with their family? Why am I invited?
You Long For Home
All your life you waited to run away from home and now you live to go back home.
Doing Weekend Activities That Do Not Involve Day Drinking
Rather than spending your weekend on the couch with a beer, you would rather go to a flea market to buy some cheap stuff for your home. Ohh!! The discounted prices.
Never Seeing Any Of Your College Friends Ever Again
Yeh Dosti hum nahi todenge is a blatant myth no one told us about. Where are your friends from college? Your best friend? When did you last meet them?
Getting a Belly
The shirt no longer fits because you have a belly to hide.
Time to get broke again and go shopping.
You Worry About Dying Alone
Being single in the late ’20s is the worst because you start to question yourself. Also, you start running out of single friends.
You are in that age where Tinder would be a meaningless deal and finding a soulmate is challenging. All hail to the arranged marriage!
We are Not Romantic Experts
Whether you have been in a relationship for long or you have just started dating, a relationship is always new because you have to keep putting in the effort.
A lot of you might struggle to build long-term relationships because once the fire comes down, it becomes difficult to manage.
What’s the point of living with this person if I don’t feel the spark? Is something you would ask yourself on most of the days. However, hang on!
We all struggle in our relationships from time to time. We are all learning. If you feel you are the only one trying to cope up with the new life, we guarantee you are not alone.
Life is Quite Mundane
Between the highlight reel of Facebook and Instagram are the never-posted snapshots of real daily life: laundry on the floor, dishes in the sink, fights in the kitchen, mail piles and unwritten thank you cards, end of the day brain-dead exhaustion, painful chore dates with bills and budget, constantly picking up the clutter from the rooms of your house.
Adult life is not at all clubbing every weekend, it is quite mundane. Now, it’s not like this stuff can’t be beautiful or special- it can be. However, if you keep whining, it will surely ruin the mundanity for you.
Please don’t beat yourself up over this believing that everyone else is having better sex, keeping a cleaner house, better managing their finances and pantries with plenty of time and money left over for travel and adventures. It’s likely not true. Most of our lives are filled with mundanity. It just doesn’t make it onto social media.
Being an Adult is Lonely
Loneliness is constant, it doesn’t matter if you are committed or single. Sometimes it can be hard.
So whether you conflict with loved ones or colleagues, circumstantially isolated, or isolating yourself, loneliness is a far more common adult experience than what you may imagine based on sitcoms, social posts, or even what you one day imagined life may feel like. Take heart if you feel lonely. This is one of the key tasks we all must face as humans.
It’s Harder to Make Friends
Making friends in college was easy. However, now it is suddenly hard. Many people feel sad or confused as to how they cannot make friends as an adult. We want to add here that it is normal.
Every Career- Even Your Dream Career- Comes with Drawbacks
No matter how wonderful your job or career, no matter how carefully you planned, every career comes with drawbacks. Be it mundanity in the administration, the commute you have to make to get to your dream job, the time away from your family, the vulnerability of putting yourself out there and risking rejection, every job and career on the planet comes with some tradeoffs and that’s okay. You will have to find the set of tradeoffs you’re most willing to tolerate when crafting and pursuing the job or career you want.
And This Incredible Melancholy Keeps On Haunting You
This melancholy you just felt after reading this article and realizing that we are rowing the same boat.
Phew! Adulting is difficult. We believe you must have related to some of the points mentioned in this article. To which point did you relate the most? We would love to hear from you in the comments below. Also, let us know if you have some other experience or if we missed something.
Until then, keep adulting and stay with us for more such fun reads.
Feature Image Credits- Photo by Wayhomestudio on Freepik!
