What sucks most about adulthood?

Wearing a diaper

Having sex with an overweight heifer wife

Having to sneak around and pay for sex from prostitutes

Tolerating bratty kids

Well the worst thing is that you are closing in on your impending death. Having to deal with the daily job, watching your parents health decline, dealing with how to care for them. That stuff isn't much fun either.

My big advice to those that are young is to avoid "keeping with the Jones" syndrome and chasing things. I'm not saying you shouldn't try to make money, far from it, you should try to make a TON of money, but chase experiences. Travel travel travel, then travel some more.

Use the money you make to experience as much of this world as possible. Don't be content to sit and watch tv or play video games, or go to see fake contrived things like Disney; go see the national parks, foreign countries, swim in exotic seas, hike mountains, see some of man kind's great works in art, and architecture.

The worst part of growing older is that other men stop seeing you as dangerous.

You sound like the one with the pity party now. You seem offended that I generalized you by when you were born, which is exactly the point I was making...you can't generalize like that. My original point was that in 'general' it is harder to succeed in the US today then it has been for people from couple previous generations. One 'example' doesn't make the general consensus true.

And your personal example can't be generalized to your own generation, either. Your posts show a complete lack gratitude for your health, relative wealth and personal security. These are opportunities many will never see in their lifetime. Even if you aren't capitalizing on these opportunities right now from a financial/social perspective, at least be grateful for having them.

young and naive wrote:

When you became an adult, what was the worst new part of it? Paying taxes? Worrying about money? Literally every adult I know claims to be super busy and stressed out especially if they have kids, but I'm not sure where it all comes from.

The decreased availability of large blocks of consecutive time to do what you want (or to not do anything).

Kindergarten: Only expected to be there half the day.

Elementary school: Daily recess.

Middle school: Summers off.

High school/college/grad school: Big breaks in the schedule, but you probably have to work for at least some of them. Still, better than....

Prime adult years: A week off at a time is a huge deal. Two weeks in a row is almost unheard of. Until...

Retirement: Unless you've done well financially, you're likely to have to postpone this until your physical capacities are diminished. So you'll have more time to do what you want, but you might have run out of time to do longer pursuits you wanted to do when you were, say, 48. Random example: Go live in New Zealand for two months.

Cancer. Old age. Lots of funerals. Impotence.

Not in that order.

delusional people wrote:

I have worked my ass off for 5 years after college and have nothing to show for it.

If you truly worked that hard for 5 years, you should have plenty to show for it. You should at least have a lot of money saved up. If not then my guess is that you weren't really working that hard.

There are more opportunities today than ever. Everyone has access to the Internet in the palm of their hand. That didn't exist 20+ years ago. Not really until about 10 years ago. The only person limiting your success is you.

young and naive wrote:

When you became an adult, what was the worst new part of it? Paying taxes? Worrying about money? Literally every adult I know claims to be super busy and stressed out especially if they have kids, but I'm not sure where it all comes from.

Incessant negativity from coworkers and people who are beat down by the system, and LRC posters.

Mistakes have real consequences. Realizing that when you mess a situation up, no one is going to bail you out.

It can all be boiled down to one word: responsibility.

Adulthood is great if you choose it to be. I teach elementary school PE. I love going to work and get breaks just like grade school and childhood. Yea I have to work for my money and deal with behavior issues/parents/etc... but at the end of the day it's way better than being a kid. You obviously have more responsibility and if you actually care about running, you have to do it real early, or after work when you are tired. If you add a spouse to that, or a part time job to make ends meet, you really have to be discipline with it and understand that it's going to be more work to maintain fitness, or gain fitness.

The perception of time. The older you get, the quicker time goes by. Do you remember when you were a child, how you couldn't wait until summer break or the holidays, and time would drag on? As an adult, it seems like a year is only a few weeks long. One minute its New Year, then you blink and all of the sudden it is mid-April.

The diminishing of possibility.

pretzel man wrote:

Nothing.

right.

that is if you grow up.

Hi there. Dont take decline so seriously. My dad was milking a herd of goats morning and night over 70 years old with 20% heart function. He stood on a step ladder and painted an entire 2 story house 2700 sq feet because he had to. He couldnt carry a log of firewood but he did more physical effort than most 20 year olds these days and he didnt have a TV.

And Im in my 40s and my dad is dead now. I have a 1 year old puppy that can run for miles and sprint like crazy. I never thought I had fast twitch muscle fibers when I was in college but now I knoe I was wrong. If more runners held onto the lease of a herding dog with endurance and speed they would get an appreciation of whats its like. To stop sniff the ground and then turnin into s headlong sprint down the trails ahh noe that is what life is about. I developed my aerobic capacity where it hard to get me out of bresth from a dog sprint. :) and in my 40s so take it easy you got your life ahead of you, use it.

When your heart dies.

I love my job, so that isn't a concern. The response earlier about a seriously sick child touched my heart. That was deep. Overshadows anything I have.

For me, it has been the loss of my youthful optimism. Sometimes bad things happen for no reason. Sometimes the bad guy wins. Sometimes there is nothing you can do about it, and there won't be a happy ending.

Once you've seen it happen a few times, you start believing it can happen all the time.