When did you realize that you had grown up?

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: krunchykrome
When the idea of me staying home on a friday night watching tv seemed more appealing than going out clubbing or drinking at bars.

Maybe for you. If that was the case, I was never anything but an adult. Clubbing and drinking at bars never appealed to me. Some people did somehow convince me to go to a club once. I said after about 4 minutes that I had to get out. They went with me, and told me that I looked like a deer plopped in the middle of a 10 lane highway. It's probably the closest thing to an outright anxiety attack I've ever had. It was crowded, and it was loud.

Originally posted by: pontifex
i'm 26 and still waiting

24 here. Still waiting.
But part of me feels old already. My apartmentmates call me "old man" because I have "old man" mannerisms. I don't like loud music, I tend to think of my peers as immature, arrogant, and undisciplined, and I tend to follow a rigid schedule during the week.

 

[Garet Jax]

When I heard a baby cry and realized it was mine....

 

[Orsorum]

Still waiting. 23 here.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: Malak
When my 4th grade teacher was boring me.

The blond one?

Niiiiiiiiiice.

 

[krunchykrome]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: krunchykrome
When the idea of me staying home on a friday night watching tv seemed more appealing than going out clubbing or drinking at bars.

Maybe for you. If that was the case, I was never anything but an adult. Clubbing and drinking at bars never appealed to me. Some people did somehow convince me to go to a club once. I said after about 4 minutes that I had to get out. They went with me, and told me that I looked like a deer plopped in the middle of a 10 lane highway. It's probably the closest thing to an outright anxiety attack I've ever had. It was crowded, and it was loud.

Originally posted by: pontifex
i'm 26 and still waiting

24 here. Still waiting.
But part of me feels old already. My apartmentmates call me "old man" because I have "old man" mannerisms. I don't like loud music, I tend to think of my peers as immature, arrogant, and undisciplined, and I tend to follow a rigid schedule during the week.

I was a bit of a party boy.

 

[Saint Nick]

20 years old, still getting there. I am a lot more grown up than my peers... they're all going out on Friday's and Saturday's getting plastered, something I was never interested in. I figure I can have fun without alcohol and drama. They all don't care about school and aren't too conciencious about choices they make in life. Granted, we all make bad choices, but some of my peers' choices boggle my mind. Like someone mentioned here, I follow a rigid schedule, don't do "stupid" stuff, and I don't like loud music either. I have a part-time job, a full-time relationship, and grades to maintain. And I still have to find time to do stuff I personally enjoy and still visit my parents and friends.

I'm trying to not grow up too fast, but like John Mayer's song, we'll never stop this train. Getting older and growing up will come eventually.

 

[monk3y]

I pretty much realized it when I had to move out, and I mean for real moved out. Completely cut off.

 

[hookinitup]

22nd birthday. it was a strange sensation.

 

[Siddhartha]

I think I was in my early thirties. I notice I thought of myself as an adult or at least not as a kid.
I was doing things, i.e. going to the dentist and doctor, I did not like doing because they needed to done not because someone made me do them.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: pontifex
i'm 26 and still waiting

24 here. Still waiting.
But part of me feels old already. My apartmentmates call me "old man" because I have "old man" mannerisms. I don't like loud music, I tend to think of my peers as immature, arrogant, and undisciplined, and I tend to follow a rigid schedule during the week.

yeah, i'd say that sounds a bit like me in that aspect but i don't feel like an adult. I guess because my life hasn't really moved on. I'm stuck in a ****** little job that seems to have no purpose, i still live at home because of said ****** job, no SO, and I'm still very much into things that most people might consider childish (video games, fantasy and sci-fi type stuff, huge imagination).

Although, I tend to think the last thing I mentioned isnt too bad, especially having an imagination. I couldn't stand being another drone who sits in front of the TV watching American Idol.

Too bad I can't parlay my imgaination into something like a career.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

I suppose it happened when I stopped caring whether or not I was an adult.

Or maybe it was when I started looking at my employees and grumbling *damn kids* to myself.

 

[petejk]

17 years old..when I got my first job.

 

[CptObvious]

I don't think I'm grown up yet (I'm 26), but over the past year I've aged. Since I started working, I get tired after midnight, and I have trouble sleeping past 8 a.m. I only have one drink when I go out - my tolerance has gone down and now anything more than that will get me wasted. Conversations are generally about work, family (as in starting one) and current events rather than TV shows or getting high. And I'm spending a lot more money on clothes and shoes now (before it was on electronics and guitars). *sigh*

 

[chowmein]

when i left home

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: CptObvious
I don't think I'm grown up yet (I'm 26), but over the past year I've aged. Since I started working, I get tired after midnight, and I have trouble sleeping past 8 a.m. I only have one drink when I go out - my tolerance has gone down and now anything more than that will get me wasted. Conversations are generally about work, family (as in starting one) and current events rather than TV shows or getting high. And I'm spending a lot more money on clothes and shoes now (before it was on electronics and guitars). *sigh*

old man!

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Still waiting, probably not going to happen for me

Jobs haven't done it, houses didn't do it, raising a son didn't do it, even grey hair hasn't done it.

 

[Krazy4Real]

Originally posted by: Zach
bought a house

Same for me. As I was signing that mortgage contract, I knew I was grown up.

 

[Raduque]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
This Christmas. I actually asked for (and legitimately wanted) socks as a gift.

ZV

That's not when you realized you'd grown up, that's when you realized you Got Old(tm) :laugh:

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: Hyperblaze
What event in your life occurred to make you realize that you had grown up.

How did you realize it happen? The way you reacted to the situation?

college

and having it suck at first and having to stick it out without any parents there to fall back on.

 

[Beev]

I'm 22.

I've matured a lot over the past few years, but I don't think I've "grown up." Just last night at about midnight (work 11pm-7am) I went outside and just target practiced with snowballs. Had a blast.

 

[NatePo717]

When my parents started asking me for advice on how to deal with my two younger brothers. (I'm 21)

 

[cheapherk]

I'm 41 today, and I think I'll never completely grow up. Get fatter? Maybe; grow up- never.

 

[b0mbrman]

When friends and cousins my age started getting married, having kids, and dying

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
This Christmas. I actually asked for (and legitimately wanted) socks as a gift.

ZV

Ironic... I asked for a pair of jeans. I think my mother's reaction was "you're kidding, right?"

I've seen several posts in here that people have indicated was their "trigger" that made them know they had grown up. I'd venture to guess that many still haven't, regardless of what they think.

My grandparents, and many others, have repeatedly tried to impress upon me that nobody is ever fully grown up... you just mature with age. I know I'm not "grown up," nor will I ever be, though I've crossed some of the milestones that others have mentioned. To me, they're just that... milestones.

• Losing my grandmother, the only person that had "been there" for me throughout my childhood... and realizing that life would keep going.
• Bosses coming to me and telling me that I'm more mature and trustworthy than my 40-year-old counterparts (and then later finding out that my bosses were being honest)
• Hearing a judge say to me "You won, Mr. [mylastname]. Good luck in everything you do, and God bless." (You wouldn't understand unless you have heard about my youth... signaling to me that the battle between my parents and I is, at long last, over.)
• Resigning from my first "real" job, not knowing what I would do, but that I would do it somehow.
• Asking for something useful for Christmas, rather than something I wanted. (see above)
• Being able to completely put aside my feelings for certain people and things for an evening, and just "be there" for a friend, when he needed me to be.
• Seeing many other people rush to my defense before I can even react to some situations
• Many, many other things...

A few of the above are trivial... some were extremely important to me. I'll never be "grown up," but I don't think that anyone ever is. We all mature as we go. Some faster than others.

 

[gooseman]

Didn't happen for me until I was 40!!! Diagnosed with a Brain Tumor. Had surgery to remove said tumor. The first time in 40 years that I actually felt like a grown-up was when I wrote the check to pay for my portion of the 75,000 hospital bill. (the portion that was left after insurance)

Confirmed this feeling at age 42 when my Wife and I bought our first house and the real-estate agent handed me the keys after closing.

Both events were "eye-openers"