Topic: At what age did you feel like an adult?

[Ghandi]

Ideally defining "adult" or "grown-up" would be necessary, but I'm assuming that it varies from person to person.

I'm asking because I'm 24 and still don't feel like an adult. I'm not saying this in a negative way - that I necessarily want to be an adult; but the last year has drawn me in that direction and I can't turn back. Physically I'm early 20's and mentally I feel anything but a wise old man, but I'm beginning to see the transformation that is taking place.

I engage in a lot of ridiculousness and overenthusiastic responses when dealing with friends that are well received by someone my age but would seem weird by someone older. I'm assuming that I'll hear a lot about how I will grow out of it but I don't know if I want to. Having fun with people is what helps me cope with everything.

I don't know exactly what I'm getting at with this thread, maybe I'm wondering how everyone has changed or what I should expect in the next ten years. But let's just keep it as an informal poll with the original question.

[gpw11]

I don't.

[Pugnate]

The day I met AngryKeebler.

I was only 10 at the time.

[Xessive]

I don't.

Same here. I mean it's tough to define it. In my mind I haven't transformed into a new "adult" being. I guess I always envisioned it would happen when I got married or when I have kids. I do recall a total change in my state of mind when I turned 17. That was when I started questioning my actions, looking before I leap, and started to come around to my parents' perspective and realizing how shitty I had been to them as a kid!

Thinking back I still feel like I'm the same person with upgrades. At which point did I stop being the child and become the adult? Not sure but biologically speaking that's gotta be somewhere around 18-21.

I always defy the "act your age" attitude whenever I'm faced with it. For example I occasionally get criticized for playing PC/video games at my age (like there's something wrong with it), to which I simply respond "Oh and I suppose grown men chasing after a ball is considered mature behaviour?" Then I clarify that there's no defining factor that makes any of these activities "childish" per se; they're activities.

[Quemaqua]

Apparently I'm the opposite of the rest of you.  I felt like an adult by 16 and don't really remember what it felt to feel like anything else.  I lived at home for quite a while, but I had a separate basement apartment that had some of its own utilities and such, and I was working and paying rent by 16.  My dad died when I was 20 and I got a job with good pay and benefits working for the county which I kept for almost 9 years.  I've always had friends and such, but always busy friends that I can't see very often, and the groups of friends I used to hang out with all disbanded by the time I was 23.  I was married to Julia at 22 and we had dated for 4 years prior to that.  We were married 5 years before the divorce.

So yeah, whatever not feeling like an adult was like, I really don't have any recollection on a daily basis.  It's only during the meets every year that I have any sense of that again, and sometimes it comes with caveats.  Last year had them, this year does too.  One of Heather's best friends has a brain hemorrhage and is in the hospital awaiting a 2nd CAT scan and transfer to Dallas so they can perform surgery, and she's a fucking mess.  I guess she had some birthday plans for me or something, but she said those are deep-sixed until later, and that seems to happen to most of my birthdays.  The world just doesn't seem like a place for mirth most of the time.  You have to squeeze it in where you can amidst the bullshit, and while I suppose that's the same for everyone, some are better at it than others.  I'm apparently not that good at it.

[Xessive]

I could say I've been 40 since I was 17 but I try real hard to stay in touch with my inner child

I do feel for ya, Que. I still think that despite your current outlook and how well you hide it you're still as optimistic as ever. Otherwise you would have just ordered one of those heart-attack in a bite burgers and just given up on the world.

[K-man]

Some days I feel like an adult, some days I don't.

[scottws]

I would say around 4 years ago when I first got a house.  My brother (not the one that posted in the Help forum) always points out to me that I talk about my lawn and landscaping sometimes and that definitely makes me feel like an adult.

[Cobra951]

In some ways, I was a kid well into my forties.  Events since have taken most of the childlike joy out of my life.  It's something no one should give up without a fight.

Becoming a father made a huge difference.  Suddenly my life had an unmistakable purpose.

[Cools!]

I feel like an adult when I'm with my peers, but a kid when I'm on my own enjoying my hobbies.

[Ghandi]

I really enjoyed the responses here, I've never asked anyone in real life or otherwise this question, and I think it's a good one - especially now that I'm mid 20's and can actually relate.

[Xessive]

Y'know, whenever I'm feeling old, like I'm aging rapidly, I log on here and read jokes about Cobra

I'm also inspired by Cobra's youthful approach in everything on here!

[MysterD]

Never.

[W7RE]

I don't.

[Raisa]

I rarely feel like an adult, but one exception was the day before my baby was born. I had been confined in the hospital for more than 24 hours and the doctors were worried I was about to have seizures or a stroke. I was overdosed on meds to stop the seizures, so I couldn't breathe properly, I couldn't follow any conversations, I was seeing double, and I was very close to just passing out. But I knew I had to somehow keep track of things if both of us were to survive.

I told my husband to call our families and let them know that we've been in the hospital and what we were facing.

Being able to think that clearly through all that muddle and pain amazes me every time I think back to that day.