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Does growing up really suck?
From the trope page as well as the attitude in real life, there seems to be a prevalent attitude that growing up sucks. That is not so say that growing up is easy and/or that everyone is mature adult but I noticed adulthood can be pretty awesome. I'll admit my experience in the world is rather limited but from I observed in school and at work that growing up can be an awesome thing. I also acknowledged that everyone has the same experiences as I do.
Why does it suck to grow up? Is it really as bad as most people make it sound?
Comments
Stop relying on TV Tropes as your sole perception of the world.
And growing up means different things to different people. If you enjoy growing up, good for you.
I think that, especially for people who enjoyed a good childhood, adulthood may bee somewhat disappointing since one has to basically turn the wheels of one's life by oneself, rather than rely on things happening around them to just work out.
This is a highly subjective topic.
Me, I'm not ready to grow up. Really not. But life doesn't wait for you to be ready. Nothing waits. So you either stave off the onset of responsibility and moan, or you can jump off the deep end and enjoy your new freedoms.
It's really that simple.
It seems that for most people growing usually means, getting a job, paying the bills, working in an office and become a monotonous robot.
I know didn't get to do much in my childhood although it was fairly good. Being able to do the things that I could not do. I found that adult life isn't as frightening as most people make it sound.
Everybody who says that growing up means being a robot understands nothing, because robots are rad.
Adulthood means sacrifice, but it's not the death of joy.
This is true, what is the death of joy is the soul-crushing work.
I'd say having a TVT page doesn't mean that it's really "prevalent" so much as there are enough examples to make a list.
Anyway, I hesitate to say that I even had a childhood, so growing up still looks better than the alternative.
It's less "frightening" and more "kinda dull", for some people.
(And this applies in multiple ways -- not just what people do. Like, for example, at least here in the United States, products for children (such as clothing) are more likely to have bright, vivid colors than products for adults.)
This too.
Dull is true, but for me at least, the other part is losing ambition and passion while gaining smug self-importance. A lot of times, it seems that "maturity" means being a self-centred git who only cares about money and possessions while sneering at anyone actually trying to make a difference in important issues such as climate change. Though that's also associated with the suburban stereotype.
Do manchildren count as grown-up? 'Cause I don't know where do I fall.
College is rife with people indulging in faddish political ideologies that break down or lose their importance once outside the academic bubble, plus they harbour some disdain towards NORPs(drones that don't look further than job, monogamy and white picket fence), perhaps leading to a 180 after graduation.
Mature is mostly used as a club to bash other people with anyway. People are either manchildren or insecure teenagers trying so hard to be serious, they're either naïve for accepting the status quo or never grew past the rebellious phase, etcetera, etcetera. Anything can be constructed as mature if you try hard enough.
Those rules suck.
Adulthood means sacrificing some things and whatever else you want it to be.
I learned in another forums once that adulthood is being without all the angst comes with it. I also learned that maturity is subjective and not everyoen matures emotionally/mentally/physically at the same rate.
I would like to know that msyelf....I am sort of manchild yet I could hold a job and find a ride to school.
To kind of go off of what glennmagusharvey said, it bugs me that there seems to be the idea that adults generally are not supposed to act goofy unless they are under the influence of alcohol or that alcohol otherwise is the catalyst for making adults fun to be around. People can decide to drink if they want and that is their choice (though trying to be responsible about it is definitely a good idea). I just think it is shame that there is a belief that adults need alcohol to be funny when that same sort of humor came readily to them as kids and obviously did not require the use of some outside substance.
On a more on topic note, I generally agree with RedEyedAbyss on this. Different people have different views on growing up, sort of like how different people have different experiences with childhood I guess. I feel like determining someone's maturity is pretty tough, especially since it is not entirely clear what "maturity" means and things that are only open to adults are not always better (or worse) than things that are only open to children.
Growing up has been a mixed bag for me. I like having the freedom, but all of the obligations I have now are just exhausting compared to when I was a kid, or even when I was in high school.
Children can be pretty perceptive, actually. At 5:13 in this video, you get a scene perfectly reminiscent of The Emperor's New Clothes.
I don't like it when "maturity" translates to thinly veiled ageism.
"perhaps leading to a 180 after graduation."
Honestly, that's my worst fear in regards to growing up. I would be interested in elaborating, but the political implications deserve a different thread (let's just say I disagree with the college student stereotype). Still, I have become more open to the still intimidating prospect of starting a family. Before, my main worry was that it's one of those things in life that doesn't come with a manual and I would cause any children of mine to become screwed up.
For me, my fear is that my life would boring or have to work in an office job for the rest of my life.
It's boring if you make it boring.
Yeah, you have to make an active effort to be more than just your career. Even if you're stuck in an office job, you can still look for better opportunities.
^^ & ^ So does that mean that I don't have to stick one career for the rest of my life? Also, I still feel like a teenager even though I am mostly an adult although to be quite honest I still feel no different from when I was eighteen. I know I am not an adult child as I can hold a job and I plan to go to school. Is growing up more than just getting a job, going to school, paying the bills, raising children, etc.? I know I touched on this before but it seems that way from what I had seen or read about.
If you have a job, you are finally free to waste your money on stupid whims, because you know you'll have the cash again the next month.
No, you won't be stuck in one career for the rest of your life.
Because you'll get fired. And you'll spend weeks, months, years trying to find a new job.
Never saw it like that, I always thought after college, university or some special school that you would have stick to one career for the rest of your life.
Okay so here's how it is.
In five years, I could be homeless, begging for spare change and dreaming of canned beans.
In five years I could be rich, powerful, but miserable.
In five years nothing would change and I would be living with my parents at twenty-eight.
In five years I could be a criminal, on the run from Johnny Law and my own crime clan.
Which one is going to happen to me?
No goddamn idea.
If people say "such-and-such-will-happen-based-on-conventional-wisdom", they're talking straight out of their ass and their anus is high. Conventional wisdom exists because there is a probability that certain things are going to happen, but it's not going to happen every time. In fact, certain harmful things may happen so often that we might need to force a circumstance change, and thus change conventional wisdom.
There is just a really large and wide scope of experiences that people go through, even with the well-trod paths set by society and the paths less often taken. So many people attain success without doing this or that, because they were lucky and clever and knew what people wanted. So many defined their own success, and they're no less happy than the former individuals.
You can be whatever you want. Do whatever you want. Walk any path you want.
Will you succeed? Maybe not. Will there be consequences? Of course; everything has a consequence. But that freedom is right there for you to take.
Fuck, I could go to Kazakhstan right now and try and be a shepherd. And I could totally do that. I might die because I don't know fuck about sheep-rearing, but it's a thing that I can do.
You are thinking that what's true for many is true for you.
Stop thinking.
Nothing is certain.
^ That is actually good advice. Honestly. Looks like have some growing up to do.....