Things you're surprised you care about as an adult

[flying_whimsy]

This one is aimed at the older escapist crowd, but you youngin's can feel free to join in, too.

Remember being little and never understanding how adults would stand in line somewhere and start talking about economics or something like that? Well, now that we are adults, have you found yourself doing the something similar?

For me it's parking. I tried living in Boston a couple years back and the parking there just drove me crazy. It's one of those little things I never thought I'd give a second thought to, but now it's one of those factors in where I live and where I travel.


So what's something, big or small, that you care about as an adult that you never thought you would?

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Can I say games? We were always told we'd get over them, or they were something for kids. I have no idea why they said that - adults have enjoyed much sillier activities and games throughout history. Just look at professional sports and chess.

The other would probably be outdoor work, gardening and hiking. I just took it for granted when young spending time outdoors, but when you go through all that schooling cooped up in a room and find that 95% of jobs involve sitting in dark rooms, you appreciate it more.

 

[tippy2k2]

My Health

I have never been a small person. I was a fat baby. I was a fat elementary school kid. I was a fat high school kid. I was a really fat college kid.

I'm still a fat person but at 28, I've determined that I really need to change that. It's been very slow going (and it doesn't help that i keep hurting myself; turned ankle in April, sprained wrist in May, and now a sprained knee last month) but I am trying to finally stick to eating (relatively) well and going to the gym (which I hope to start again next week since I have a sprained knee and am doing everything I can to stay off of it so it can heal).

I weighted 240 in college. I dropped it to 205 and have bumped it back up to 215 or so this year since I keep hurting myself. My goal is to hit my "supposed" weight of 180 before next summer.

 

[Little Gray]

Probably the news.

I never would have imagined ever as a kid that I would now be spending multiple hours every day reading the news. Even worse actually paying for a newspaper subscription.

 

[cathou]

The other would probably be outdoor work, gardening and hiking. I just took it for granted when young spending time outdoors, but when you go through all that schooling cooped up in a room and find that 95% of jobs involve sitting in dark rooms, you appreciate it more.

that. when i was a teen i told my parents that i would put concrete around my house to not having to cut the lawn and put flowers and things like that.


now i spend hours and hours per year to do a garden, keep the lawn a decent green, and choose what flower i will put in the front yard this year...

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Probably the news.

I never would have imagined ever as a kid that I would now be spending multiple hours every day reading the news. Even worse actually paying for a newspaper subscription.

Yeah, the news. Can't believe I watch them, let alone care for them.

 

[Creator002]

Hygiene. Never thought the day would come where I try to have one a day.
Also, ownership and money. I used to blow my cash the second I got it, but now I keep a quite tight grip on it until all my financial stuff is taken care of. If something is mine, especially if it was expensive, I guard it like it's my child[footnote]But drop it a lot less. (Oh, and no. This is just a joke. I don't actually have a child.)[/footnote] and am funny when somebody else is just holding it. I tend to start panicking if the person with it starts acting like they won't give it back.

 

[geK0]

I totally thought I'd be grown out of anime, cartoons and video games (ones like pokemon in particular) by my 20s, but here I am at 24 on a video game forum talking about exactly that.

I never thought I'd be so filled with rage while driving; I get absolutely livid when somebody is tail gating me. As a kid I would have assumed I'd be pretty carefree about driving.

I never thought I'd care so much about oregano; as a child I swore I would never touch the stuff.

Other than that my interests have remained fairly consistent. I was fairly responsible and money-conscious from a young age and had always taken an interest in economics, I have been a self-taught cook since I was 8 (my father encouraged me to experiment), I helped my dad with the garden since I can remember and I do some gardening on my own these days. The only major difference is that I actually have to worry about bills these days rather than being anxious that I will have to pay bills in the future.

 

[L. Declis]

I have found that as I have gotten older, I've moved from my extremely leftist views into becoming extremely nationalistic (oh, I still have leftist views, see NHS).

Oh, and I have found that I really enjoy shopping with my significant other, whereas I hated shopping as a child. And now I like to look at clothes to buy.

Which brings me to my appearance.

I've always kinda been a bit... geeky, shall we say, but only recently have I started trying to look after my weight, eat sensible portions, get some exercise, wear nice clothes, sort out my teeth, do my hair, the lot. I've become very shallow regarding myself, but damn if I don't feel better for it.

Probably the news.

I never would have imagined ever as a kid that I would now be spending multiple hours every day reading the news. Even worse actually paying for a newspaper subscription.

Yeah, the news. Can't believe I watch them, let alone care for them.

Oh god, this. The news has become extremely fascinating, although I do miss programs like Mock the Week and Have I Got News for You.

 

[Qwurty2.0]

My image (and I suppose hygiene by extension). I was not a dirty or gross kid, but I just never had a conscious thought about how I looked to others. Now I spend about 30-45 minutes every morning cleaning myself where I shower, brush teeth, mouth wash, deodorant, touch of cologne, style my hair with gel and then hair spray, maybe even use concealer if I have noticeable bags under my eyes and I want to look my best.

Then I spend 10-15 minutes trying to figure out whether I want to wear good looking clothes and be uncomfortable in this seasons weather (do I stay warm in the morning and sweat the rest of the day, or freeze my ass off in the morning and be comfortable in the afternoon? Goddammit Midwest).

Also, other people. Growing up I took for granted that adults were intelligent and, well, adults. Now I'm an adult and I just want to smash my head into a wall because of how immature and selfish most grownups are. You realize a lot of people never grow up and it makes you look at the circumstances of your childhood in a whole different light.

The world's just not as wonderful as it was when I was young and innocent.

 

[Fappy]

Business. One day two years ago myself and two good friends sat down to eat some pizza at Mellow Mushroom. All of us were in our early to mid twenties at the time and had recently started careers within the last 1-2 years. We started talking about video games and D&D as we always do, but then something happened. It took us a half hour before we realized we'd started talking about work, and not just what we have to deal with in our positions, but discussed a lot of the intricacies of our employers and the industries we were in. My sister realized it before any of us did and was bored out of her mind, LOL!

 

[CrystalViolet]

All of the weird habits people told me I would grow out of have not gone away even though I'm on the wrong side of my mid-twenties. I find the "adult" conversations people have around me intolerably vacuous. It annoys me that I'll want to run outside and dance in the rain during a thunderstorm only to have my age-peers tell me it's "childish". Luckily I keep like-minded company

 

[Chemical Alia]

I never thought when I was a kid that I'd ever genuinely like or care about anything that had to do with fashion, makeup, beauty, etc. It started off as a teen as a desperate attempt to deflect negative attention from everyone at school snd try to fit in. But now, a decade and a half later, I can say I enjoy that stuff without the slightest bit of guilt or anxiety.

 

[Fappy]

I never thought when I was a kid that I'd ever genuinely like or care about anything that had to do with fashion, makeup, beauty, etc. It started off as a teen as a desperate attempt to deflect negative attention from everyone at school snd try to fit in. But now, a decade and a half later, I can say I enjoy that stuff without the slightest bit of guilt or anxiety.

I think a lot of people have an epiphany around college-age when they realize other people's back-asswards opinions don't matter and they should be proud of themselves and their quirks/interests. I know I got a lot less self-conscious about my interests and how I portrayed myself when I reached my 20's.

 

[MetalDooley]

Politics

When I was younger I would have preferred to bash my head repeatedly off a wall than talk about politics.It was the most boring subject in the world.Now that I'm older and have to do things like pay various taxes suddenly politics becomes a lot more important

 

[Ajna]

My weight. I've nearly always been pretty severely underweight (I was a fat baby, fat little kid, then when I started growing, it was only upward and not outward). Throughout highschool I was around 5'11" and 115, I put on twenty pounds at college and I've dropped 25 since then. People always have tried to tell me that my "metabolism will slow down" and "I should be careful about how much I eat" because if I get too used to being able to eat as much as I can, I'll balloon out.

Really, though, they're full of shit and doing the exact opposite of helping. My father's not much bigger than me, neither is my grandfather, neither is my great-grandfather. "Overweight" isn't in my genetics. But I do have a lot of trouble eating regularly. I tend to describe it as "anorexia, but not anorexia nervosa". That is, lack of appetite, but not a neurotic lack of appetite; I don't have any body image issues, I just don't feel hungry as often as I really should. Maybe every other day, sometimes a bit more often, I'll feel hungry, eat a smallish snack, then I'm fine. In the last three days, I've eaten two bagels, a bowl of mac and cheese, and some animal crackers. That's... Pretty much it.

Rationally I know that I'm not eating enough. It worries me, because I know it's not healthy. I've had problems with fainting and seizures before that I'm sure it doesn't help for me to not eat, I've got next to no body fat (you can see my fucking heart through my skin, even), sometimes I wake up with part of my body numb... I know I need to eat more. But I just don't feel the urge. I'll look at the clock, think "I've been awake for 16 hours and haven't had anything to eat, I should probably do something about that", and instead I'll go to sleep and eat in the afternoon of the next day.

Also: Politics. Never expected to care about that shit, but now I care heavily enough that it's actually cost me friends, because they got angry at me for not agreeing with them. Never expected to lose friends over my opinion on taxation.

 

[Snydeclyde]

The quality of socks,
I used to be distraught at getting socks for Christmas, now I'm at a stage where I appreciate good socks...

 

[Skeleon]

Museums and exhibitions. When I was younger those were so boring! Unless they were about dinosaurs or stars exploding or stuff like that. But now I find myself gravitating towards exhibitions about history and politics or even modern art every now and then. It's weird.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

My weight. I've nearly always been pretty severely underweight (I was a fat baby, fat little kid, then when I started growing, it was only upward and not outward). Throughout highschool I was around 5'11" and 115, I put on twenty pounds at college and I've dropped 25 since then. People always have tried to tell me that my "metabolism will slow down" and "I should be careful about how much I eat" because if I get too used to being able to eat as much as I can, I'll balloon out.

Really, though, they're full of shit and doing the exact opposite of helping. My father's not much bigger than me, neither is my grandfather, neither is my great-grandfather. "Overweight" isn't in my genetics. But I do have a lot of trouble eating regularly. I tend to describe it as "anorexia, but not anorexia nervosa". That is, lack of appetite, but not a neurotic lack of appetite; I don't have any body image issues, I just don't feel hungry as often as I really should. Maybe every other day, sometimes a bit more often, I'll feel hungry, eat a smallish snack, then I'm fine. In the last three days, I've eaten two bagels, a bowl of mac and cheese, and some animal crackers. That's... Pretty much it.

Rationally I know that I'm not eating enough. It worries me, because I know it's not healthy. I've had problems with fainting and seizures before that I'm sure it doesn't help for me to not eat, I've got next to no body fat (you can see my fucking heart through my skin, even), sometimes I wake up with part of my body numb... I know I need to eat more. But I just don't feel the urge. I'll look at the clock, think "I've been awake for 16 hours and haven't had anything to eat, I should probably do something about that", and instead I'll go to sleep and eat in the afternoon of the next day.

Do you ever do any physical labor, or do you just sit around?

I've had a similar problem (not as extreme) where I was really skinny in middle school and high school. Part of it was that I didn't have much of an appetite, and part of it was that even when I would eat I'd work off all those calories immediately, so I'd never gain weight. In high school I was 6 feet tall and only weighed about 135. Not exactly massively underweight, but still underweight.

I started weightlifting in college, and not only have I put on muscle, but I've put on weight. When you work out your body naturally craves more food, and certain types of food, so if you're lifting weights your body will naturally try to make you eat more so that it has the nutrients to build muscle.

These days I'm 6 feet tall, 165 pounds with 9% body fat. I'm still skinny but it's less "starvation victim" skinny and more "Bruce Lee" skinny.