being an adult is weird

[harmonicon]

It's full of complicated shit, situations, emotions, etc. and there's no one to tell you what you can and can't do, or what you should or shouldn't do.

Bloody hell.... is there like, an "easy" level that I can go through first to get up to speed?

[mainegreen]

1. 'no one to tell you what you can and can't do'! You're not married, are you?

:rofl:

Still, I prefer married to single.

[harmonicon]

5. clearly, no

[rucky]

17. That's when things get really complicated. n/t

[rcrush]

2. I stopped leaving the house.

Not dealing with the average fat cow moron day to day helps.

[tismyself]

3. tell me

I'm trying to send my sister a howler and can't get the damned thing to work right. Stupid Harry Potter web site...

[Forkboy]

4. Even though I'm 41 I wouldn't know.

:)

[LibDemAlways]

6. I'm 56. My parents are 86 and believe me they are

still able and willing to tell me what I should and shouldn't do. In my parents' eyes I'm still a kid, never mind that I'm eligible for AARP.

[harmonicon]

9. yeah, I hear that

I actually had a huge falling out with my parents the last time that I went to visit them over this (respective ages, 30 and 70).

On a side note, are you in the UK, and are you a LibDem, or are you just using "LibDem" as an abbreviation for "liberal Democrat"? (as opposed to the UK "Liberal Democratic" party)

[LibDemAlways]

27. I wish I was in the UK. Actually spent some time there

over the summer and loved it. No, the "LibDem" is short for liberal Democrat!

[vixengrl]

7. I'm 36, and I tried a lot of the "cheat options"--but I'm still

only a low-level adult, when it comes to facing diffcult situations. Luckily, I have a high saving throw against despair. My recommendation for getting comfortable in the adult levels has to do with scoring points--accquiring shelter and a SO on your own, especially if you marry the SO, count for huge game points. A solid job as a revenue stream is also really major. With those in place, temporary job disuption, or SO loss, can be overcome. Shelter loss is major. So is job-loss. They take away from all-over existence points, causing the potential of interruption of play. Even character-death.

This game has, unfortunately, no test levels. It's all real, and all counts toward your final score.

[harmonicon]

10. yeah, I fail at most of that

No SO (just recently - I thought we'd get married), no job or job prospects....

at least my landlord is cool and my rent is cheap as all hell, so I probably won't lose my shelter, unless I keep drinking and fuck up my god-send gravy train monetary existence.

[peruban]

8. No instruction manual on this one.

Unless you want to subscribe to religion or philosophy, but even then there are always gray areas, so we're all pretty much screwed.

[Missy Vixen]

11. "I'm an Adult Now", the Pursuit of Happiness

This reminds me on a regular basis that yeah, I'm still an adult.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSDF8VvU13M

Julie

p.s. Nobody else knows what they're doing, either. Just remember this. ;-)

[Fire Walk With Me]

12. I'm glad someone else remembers this one.

:thumbsup:

[Missy Vixen]

14. It rawks

Plus, it always makes me laugh!

"I can't write songs about girls anymore
I have to write songs about women"...

:rofl:
Julie

[sohndrsmith]

13. I have to recommend this for the subject line alone.

I'm guessing you're young... if not, I wish I had the innocence of your thinking. Sometimes.

The way I see it - it's no more complicated than childhood, it's just that the trade-offs are different, and, well I guess they're bigger too. You get more control/freedom/choice, while you get more responsibility, risk, etc. It's a more serious version of childhood, but the rules aren't a heck of a lot different (except in politics and employment - kids rely on trust more than adults do, much to the detriment of adults, I think).

Interesting concept... thanks for the cerebral puzzle... worth exploring more.

Things are as easy as you prepare for them, I think, in general. My life has been and never will be "easy" for that very reason, primarily.

One idea:

Work backwards. Figure out what you need for A, B or C. That will be far easier than just wondering if doing A or B, maybe C will get you to a vague place eventually. You want a house? Figure it out backwards. You may be surprised at what it takes - or you may be surprised that you have other ideas. But you'll have information and specifics and those things give you power and choice.

[harmonicon]

21. I don't know if I'm "young"

I turned 30 last week. Is that young? I feel old, except that I'm still a student, so I'm surrounded by loads of people in their early 20's. I'm actually closer in age to my doctoral advisors than I am to some of the other doctoral students here. Because I'm older than so many of my friends, I know that decisions that they think are unimportant can actually have a dramatic effect on one's life, and that decisions that seem very serious for them at the time are really not that big of a deal 10 years later. However, my older friends have jobs and families and so don't have to deal with a lot of shit that I do and probably haven't had to in too long to seriously remember.

I certainly have never made things easy for my self. In some ways I have things very easy, but I probably didn't think enough about what having one thing be taken care of would effect other important things, making them decidedly less easy. I thought I had a plan for a few years out, seeing as that I'll be kicked out of the UK in less than 2 years. Now I have no plan, and I'm very alone, and instead of looking forward to the future, I'm fearing being kicked out of the place that is my home now and having no clue as to what the future holds, apart from hardship.

[RandomThoughts]

25. Just let it roll

it always works out. :)

Don't create a self fulfilling event. It might not be that bad.

[MrSlayer]

15. That's why I plan to never be one.

I may be growing older but I can be immature forever.

[Breeze54]

16. Just do your best! and Maybe this will help...

'How to be an Adult'



A new book by Nerissa Nields

http://www.collectivecopies.com/publishing/featured_nields.htm

Some of the topics covered include How To…

Figure out what you want to be when you grow up

Get a job

Get along with annoying people

Take care of yourself, inside and out (nutrition, exercise, mental health, etc.)

How to be a good citizen of the world (and lower your carbon footprint)

Rent an apartment

Choose a pet

Keep your house clean (enough)

Fix a broken toilet

Have a swell dinner party

Cook lots of yummy things

Budget and save

Get insurance-health, auto, life

Take care of your car

Register to vote

Date

Get married

Get divorced

And some final thoughts on parenthood

[sandnsea]

18. If "it" is a mistake, is "it" worth making

I've made lots of mistakes, we all have. And most of them, I'm glad I made them because otherwise I would have missed meeting lots of interesting people and seeing lots of places and learning all kinds of new things. So now when I don't know whether to do something, I just ask if it's a mistake worth making and if it is, then I just go for it and don't worry about the outcome.

[harmonicon]

19. thanks...

.... yeah, it may be a mistake worth making. I've already figured out one mistake that wouldn't be worth making in the next month, so that one is taken care of. I guess some other things are things that I've never dealt with before, so I don't know if the mistake could be worth it, since I don't know what it's worth.

[BarenakedLady]

20. Wait....

"there's no one to tell you what you can and can't do, or what you should or shouldn't do."

You must not be married.


x(

[harmonicon]

22. yes, it's already been mentioned

sometimes I think that I'd rather be married. I also kind of realize that if a woman ever set foot in this house, word would spread like wildfire, and I never would be married.

[Lyric]

23. Yeah. As a teenager, I was totally hyped about the whole

"Nobody can tell me what to do" thing. Somehow it didn't register until later that having nobody to tell you what to do isn't always a good thing. It's even worse when your parents are gone from this world. I have never felt more alone and vulnerable as I did when my father died and my mother got seriously ill. It's terrifying to think that, once your parents are gone, there is NOBODY else left in the world who will love you unconditionally.

Being an American is a lonely, scary thing sometimes. In other countries, extended family and friends play a much larger role in peoples' lives, but in "individualistic" America, it's just not the same. We are expected to fly or fall on our own merits; bootstraps, Horatio Alger, and all that jazz. Make a serious life mistake or failure in America, and you'll find out fast exactly what it means to be truly alone.

:(

[harmonicon]

26. maybe that's why I want to stay in England

I feel more "at home" here than I have anywhere since I left Chicago in 2001. I still love Chicago, but it's been so long that if I went back, it wouldn't be the same. I still like to visit though.

I'm sorry about your parents.... that sucks. Losing my parents is my greatest fear, though I know it will happen sometime, probably sooner than later (they're not so young). My Dad's been in the hospital a few times over the past few years, and it's scared me more than anything each time.

[Missy Vixen]

28. This is the truth

>It's terrifying to think that, once your parents are gone, there is NOBODY else left in the world who will love you unconditionally.

My parents were both gone by the time I was 31. I felt (and sometimes, still do,) very alone. I can't describe what it's like to anyone it's not happened to yet.

Julie

[crim son]

24. The excitement never ends!

Or, if it does, you can screw things up to make it begin again. :P