Does 23 feel any different than 22?
Nope.
Still all kinds of mixed up. Can anyone please relay to me the exact age when I will feel like a grown up and not be such a confused bag of emotional whirl-windyness?
I really need to sit down and write a post about my interesting group/loner tendencies. I seem to be unable to be any sort of a group participant at school. I am significantly hostile to the idea. However, ya’ll know just how freakin group oriented I am in my private life. It has been a really interesting thing to obserb. It seems as though I don’t bond if there is 0 sexual energy exchanged. (Not that I fuck everyone I am friends with, but it is ok for the energy to be there.) I’m pondering this a lot.
Now I get to try and stay awake through 3 hours of personal revelations from people I couldn’t care less about. hm. Nap time this afternoon I think.
Well, I’m gonna turn 28 at the end of the month, and I certainly have my moments of bag-ness.
When I was much younger, I expected this mythological turning point where all would make sense and be clear… a turning point of adulthood.
The older I get though, the more I think that never happens.
well, I turned into a grownup about a month after my 26th birthday but that doesn’t mean there was no emotional whirly-windness after that. Grownups have emotions too! And they can get just as out of control! Craaaaazy!
Contexts make a difference when it comes to making friends and how you interact. I’m the same way when it comes to being sociable at work. They think I’m so shy and really clean cut and probably have the most boring night life. Suckers.
Happy shared birthday, younger twin! (by a few years 🙂
As for when you start feeling “grown-up” – may that *never* happen. The emotional ball of whirlyness – not sure that ever truly goes away either, and unfortunately the settling down thing doesn’t seem to be birthday specific.
I demand, as it is also my birthday, that there be fun and merriment as soon as possible.
Working on it working on it working on it!
I’m still waiting to feel like a grown-up. Of course, in some ways I’m preparing for my mid-life crisis, so I have an excuse to not feel like a grown-up.
Actually, I think the line is when you start meeting some of your life goals – when you start doing something you want to do in life.
So, once you become a full-time teacher, especially once you start being responsible for other people, that will make you feel like a grup.
Word.
Turning 30 was no big deal at all; once you have responsibility for somebody other than yourself (in my case, kids), you’re a grown-up.
Creedence Clearwater Revival has a song, ‘Someday never comes’. I’ve never been sure what it was intended to be about, but I’ve always heard it saying that there’s no magical moment when you grow up.
The first thing I remember was asking Papa “why”,
’cause there were many things I didn’t know.
And Daddy always smiled, and took me by the hand, saying “someday, you’ll understand”.
Well I’m here to tell you now each and every mother’s son,
you’d better learn it fast, and you’d better learn it young,
’cause someday never comes.
At your age, I moved away from home to a different state, my first apartment, and my first job with a real company. (Where I still work). I certainly don’t feel all growed up.
At her age, I had just left basic training and moved from Arkansas to Chicago to start graduate school. It was a “growth experience,” as I think they’re called.
At her age, I had finished college for about a year and a half, had my senior year in Wales… and had moved back home to live with my parents. My first job after college was pizza making and delivery. (bleah)
I think I started feeling “grown up” in the middle of my first real long-term job, when I actually started a retirement account. That felt really adult, making plans for that far in the future.
At her age I was a recent college grad working in a bookstore, wishing to be somewhere else. Oh, wait…
haha!
At her age I was already getting divorced. So there’s a such thing as being TOO grown-up.
My first job out of graduate school was pizza delivery, so I feel you.
Wait, you’re younger than me?
Apparently.
Happy Birthday. Hard to believe it’s four years since I helped with your 19th Bday spanking.
I dunno about the age thing. As I come up on 44 (less than a month away now) I’m beginning to think I have a handle on being a grown-up. Then again, I thought the same at 30, and I was wrong then. I think the sign is when people you think of as grown-ups start treating you like a peer.
Happy birthday!
I felt all grown up at age eighteen. Then it went away. That’s happened a couple of times since, but it sticks around longer each time.
I think this is true – that the feeling goes away periodically. I think the return to childlikeness is good and healthy and even healing…
I don’t think we ever completely “get it”, I mean, really figure life out. I think we are always muddling on thru, and we have moments (short or long) of clarity, and moments (short or long) of confusion, whirliness, etc.
You know how old I am – and I’m still waiting…
You are a real grown up though. I’ve seen you behave like one.
Still all kinds of mixed up. Can anyone please relay to me the exact age when I will feel like a grown up and not be such a confused bag of emotional whirl-windyness?
In maybe another year or two. Note that this is true no matter how old you are; you’re always almost there until you realize that you’ve passed it. So, that may be my answer for today, or it may be true for decades. Mighty useless, aren’t I?
Happy birthday as well. It’s a day for a lot of those.
*pat on head* Useless, but cute.
Can anyone please relay to me the exact age when I will feel like a grown up and not be such a confused bag of emotional whirl-windyness?
The two are not mutually exclusive. As someone else commented, I suspect you’ll start feeling more “grown up” when you have some major responsibility – lie a teaching job or something. Getting married and/or having kids can do that, too.
I gotta say, 24 ain’t the magic number either.
Happy birthday! Wish I could make it down for your party. I’ll have plenty of free time soon tho – I’d love to get together for dinner or something to make up for my absence!