I'M AN ADUUUUUUUUUUUUULT!

[shootthebandit]

Got my drivers license about two weeks ago. It's the only adult thing I've done with my life... and I'm 24.
Feels really fucking nice and extremely depressing at the same time.

Getting a drivers license makes you feel grown up until you have to change the address on that bad boy. Trying to negotiate the DVLA (british DMV) website is nothing short of a nightmare

A lot of people will say moving out makes you feel like an adult but moving into your second house is when you really become an adult. Cancelling bills, changing your address on everything, getting your mail redirected and cleaning a flat to within an inch of its life so you can get your deposit back from your landlord. It makes you appreciate that the adult world is harsh and a bureaucratic nightmare. The actual physical act of moving out and putting heavy furniture into a van is easy but the paperwork side of things is like a hell you will not appreciate until you have to do it yourself

 

[BreakfastMan]

I still don't feel like an adult even though I haven't lived at home for 5 years.
I feel like an imposter.

Yeah, same. I am almost 21, about to get my Bachelors in Computer Science, and have worked full time for a major company, and yet I still feel like a kid messing around with father's razor. :\

 

[soren7550]

You only got your first bank account at 21?
What did you do before that?

Spent time being broke as hell (was only able to open the account thanks to the deposit from the boyfriend, and I only opened it because I'm allegedly getting some money from my old childhood house being sold).

I recently bought a tin of cookies. Not for the cookies, I just wanted the pretty tin for in my kitchen.
I felt like a granny after.

Should be noted I'm a big burly 26 year old man.

the first time the old women called me "a man" in the queue for the ice cream van.
as in "let that man go in front of you" being said to an ensemble of small children.

not "boy" or "laddie" but finally a MAN!

thus it was the ancient ones anointed my coming of age...

i was 35 with a full beard :|

These made me laugh so hard, I swear.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I'm off work this Thursday! I could stay in and try to force myself to like Skyward Sword...or watch Next Generation on Netflix or, Classic Who...oh wait...I need to go to the tag office...and fill out a worker's comp form...and contemplate gifts to buy...*sigh*

 

[Foolery]

Can't say I really feel like an adult. 21, still at home for the time being, but I will be leaving in the spring. I have a job. Doesn't pay the best but well enough to save for school and help my mum out. I've only got my novice driver's licence, not my full, but doesn't really matter anyway, since I don't own a car, which is costly, and ICBC runs a monopoly where I live.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

I don't. I have my license, my own bank account, have had a real job above minimum wage for about two years, successfully brewed my own alcohol, am about to buy a car, and am saving up to move out of my country and I still feel like a lost kid. Except one with more responsibilities and people bitching at him.
I'm hoping that I'll finally start feeling like an adult when I'm a retired old man telling my grandkids horror stories about Velcro and VHS.

 

[Spiridion]

Well I've had a bank account since 10, so that's kind of out for me. At 20, I still live at home while going to school, but pay my parents rent and buy/prepare food for myself quite a bit. Rent is a minimal sum, compared to living away from home, but I have less of a job than I'd like at the moment so the need to make my paychecks count has been settling on my shoulders. I also remember the surreal feeling of saying, "I can't stay past 10, I need to get up for work in the morning," for the first time. I still don't really feel like an adult, but I am slowly starting to feel older.

 

[Heronblade]

I ended up teaching a group of kids because others noticed that I was unusually responsible and showed traits of a quiet "lead by example" style of leadership. I was fourteen at the time, guiding and teaching a sizable group of 11-12 year old BSA newbies. Apparently I did a decent enough job at it, they kept me at it until I left the troop about four years later, but I suspect my own memories of my performance are biased.

There are other similar incidents, I was always a little... off compared to most kids, and naturally trended towards responsible behavior while others goofed off.

Of course, then I turned around and completely blew it on my first paying job, bit of a humbling experience there.

More recently, the realization that my sister and others are depending on me to keep their own attempts to get started in this world afloat.

My brother was the complete opposite. He was at home in his slacks. I went in to wish him for his 18th and asked if he wanted to go out at night. He said "Eff you I'm an adult. I don't have to do shizz" and then went on to playing a Madagascar kids game on http://www.jumpstart.com. According to him, being an adult meant the ability to do whatever you want, whenever you want to without worrying about what people say! Words of wisdom, though I will never admit it to him.

Sounds like a child to me. Not because he chose to play a kid's game rather than go out, but because he apparently thinks being an adult is all about getting his own way.

Responding to a simple question with an insult isn't exactly helping his case either.

Being an adult means taking responsibility for one's choices. Not worrying about social appearances, at least for the sake of pride, is merely one of the secondary, and optional, attributes of that mindset.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I stopped playing the piano. Seeing as both my parents wanted me to be like my Dad and become a professional musician that was fought for years. The day I stopped just half-assing the rejection of the piano and flat out told them I wasn't doing it was a turning point. It sounds small but it really did change the relationship. My father hated my choice but I think he's kind of glad I wasn't just going to go along with something I really did hate doing.

I still play the trumpet but as an amateur who has fun with music. I can never make it my job.

 

[Jenvas1306]

to be an adult you need to have your own bank account,
wasch your undies (and the rest of your cloth) yourself,
cut off the crust from sandwhiches yourself after you made them,
live in your own place,
went to the doctor alone,
got so sick that you barfed and learned how to cower infront of the toilet so it wont come out through your nose without mommy holding your head,
yelled at kids for playing too loud,
go to brunch with someone,
cook something that to more than 50% didnt come out of a can or package,
ran out of toilet paper and had to improvise,
not understand some new stuff teens do or say,
have a set of formal clothing,
got called sir or ma'am by some kid,
quit something that was fun as a teen and you thought you would never quit back then,

did I forget something important?

 

[nickpy]

Hmmm... Interesting one, I don't believe there was ever a single clear cut moment where I felt like I made the transition to adulthood, but things which have been important to me include:

- Quitting school & getting a job.
- Passing my motorcycle license and getting a bike
- Realization that I didn't like that job and needed an education for what I really wanted to do.
- Passing my car license and getting a car (still have the bike and prefer it, too)
- Having the self-discipline to force myself through college, and now university...
- Doing my round the world trip a few years back,
- Moving out "properly" for the first time...

You know, I think that overall the single most important aspect of growing up, or at least the one which for me seemed to define the moments when I felt most satisfied with myself and really felt "Wow.... I did this? I actually did this thing which for so many years was just a far-off fantasy?"... it's when I make a decision, and see it through, and ultimately, what is adulthood if it isn't the absolute freedom (at least within the bounds of law) to make your own decisions?

E.g. the realization that I didn't want to be on near-minimum-wage for the rest of my life in retail, and that though I hate formal education with a passion, I would need to drag myself through it, making the DECISION to do that, and having the self-discipline and determination I never realised I had in order to see it through to the end, that... that makes me realise how far I have come, and it makes me proud of myself.

But then I waste entire weekends playing Skyrim, reverting to my pre-adult self

 

[RedDeadFred]

Making my first credit card payment.
Going to my first class at university.
Basically doing independent stuff.

 

[searron]

For me the most holy shit I'm an adult moments where:
1) I moved across the world.
2) When I realized that my purpose of drinking had changed from get wasted

 

[C14N]

Shopping in a supermarket by myself.

Getting on a plane by myself.

Moving to a foreign country by myself.

Driving reasonably well.

Funnily enough, the bank thing wasn't really one for me because I've had a bank account as long as I can remember and I got a card when I was about 13 with the help of my parents.

 

[Dark Knifer]

Getting drunk on vodka on my 18th.

I've voted, driven a car, got a credit card and everything but being able to buy whatever from the liquor store is still my favourite adult thing.

 

[cathou]

well, i've moved out of my parents home and have my first appartment when i was 16. i guess it's the first time i really felt adult...

 

[scorptatious]

Well let's see here:

I cash in my checks all by myself.

I have my own debit card.

I have a minimum wage job that includes tips.

I've taken up a driver's ed online course.

All that, and I'm only 22!

...

:/

Yeah, I'm sorta both a late bloomer and a slacker.

 

[Strazdas]

I always felt like a teenager in adults body for a long time, however the big realization probably came when i moved to live to another city and basically started to deal with all the damn bureaucracy.

Shopping in a supermarket by myself.

Funnily enough, the bank thing wasn't really one for me because I've had a bank account as long as I can remember and I got a card when I was about 13 with the help of my parents.

So you had a bank account since 13, but shopping in a supermarket made you feel adult?

 

[the7ofswords]

Well, let's see ... I'll be 44 next month, I've been married over 22 years. I have two kids?one of whom is about to have her 21st birthday.

Yet, I still feel like I'm just playing at being an adult sometimes. I guess that subconscious detachment is never going away, if it hasn't by now.

Someone want to explain that?

Weird.

 

[kasperbbs]

Getting a proper job probably, bank account is worthless if it's empty.