<p>When I was growing up, I always heard how hard the “real world” was going to be. After living in the “real world” for three years, I have to say it’s easier than going to college. In college, I had to work, go to school, and pay for a lot of my expenses. Now I “just” work and make a lot more money than I did in college. I now have more money to save, I have money to go on vacations, and I have more free time.</p>
<p>I remember my first years in the real world. It was very liberating to leave work at 5:00 without having homework. </p>
<p>But we as human beings tend to complicate things a lot. We get married. We have kids. We suddenly find we don’t have money to go on vacations and don’t have nearly enough free time. We have to think about other people first. We wipe snotty noses and clean vomit off the floor. Yeah. The real world gets pretty real sometimes.</p>
<p>If the real world is “easy”, you aren’t trying.</p>
<p>Perhaps it is easy for you because you are making more money with few expenses. Not everyone is that fortunate. Be happy and enjoy it.</p>
<p>What do you really want to know? Most people earn more money than when they were in college.</p>
<p>If you explain the point of your question…maybe someone will have an answer.</p>
<p>Interesting first post in the parent cafe. You will get a different view here than with people in their twenties.</p>
<p>I remember the freedom of working 8 hours and not coming home to homework.</p>
<p>I also remember a second job, my new spouses overtime, owning one old car, digging for change on Fridays in the car cushions and on the floor to see if we could afford a pizza, student loans and living in a new and strange city.</p>
<p>Good times,for sure, with the hope of success in the wide open future.</p>
<p>Enjoy your freedom and save some money as life has a way of smacking you in the face every now and then and making you realize how lucky you have been.</p>
<p>My after college twenties were very uncomplicated and I wish I had known to appreciate it as I was going through it. I spent too much time worrying about stupid stuff. I had a good job and a caring spouse. We lived simply and had fun.</p>
<p>When you hate your job or don’t have enough money to pay bills, that’s real life too. And so is illness and injury, aging parents, challenging children, leaking roofs right before Christmas, etc.</p>
<p>I do think that some people create their real life drama and strife. Some of it is because they just aren’t very smart and other people tend to crave that kind of environment.</p>
<p>Enjoy your carefree real life while you can.</p>
<p>I am about as many years in as you and have definitely had the same experience. I don’t know why anybody says that college are the best years of your life when the years after are so great, and I don’t make great money and my expenses are high-- mostly due to student loans. Life isn’t easy but it’s GREAT.</p>
<p>Things do get tougher. My fianc</p>
<p>I always worked in school. And not just a little bit. I worked 3 jobs from when I turned 16 until graduation. I worked at a daycare during the week, after school until 7pm (it was the YWCA). Then I went and worked at a radio station Friday nights. Then, I worked all day Sat and Sun at a grocery store. I still had school on top of that, taking all top classes. In college, I worked less, only 30 hours a week. But I was hating life there. </p>
<p>Then I went to work in the real world and LOVED it!!! I had a job that I loved. I earned very little, but I LOVED my job! I went back to school after that just so that I could work my way up and earn more. I had to be at work often at 5-6am when I was in “the real world.” Yet, still, I was doing what I had a passion for.</p>
<p>Real life is easy.</p>
<p>Until it isn’t. Then it will knock you on your $%&*# and you will look back on college days as pretty darn uncomplicated.</p>
<p>Then things get good again.</p>
<p>Until they’re not.</p>
<p>And so on and so forth…</p>
<p>In my first job in my twenties, yes, I thought the Real World was pretty easy compared to school. More money, nicer stuff, more free time. I loved my job and my needs were few. I wasn’t really making that much money, but it felt like more than enough. </p>
<p>Later, with kids and illnesses and aging parents, the Real World has been tougher. I don’t think it is harder than the school world, just different. I enjoy the emotional richness of being an adult. It isn’t always flowers and sunshine, but I never expected it to be. My school years were lived in a bubble, like many students’ were, but my concerns then were real to me. Grades and learning and deadlines, but also friendships and finding a mate and growing up and being away from home. </p>
<p>We have been fortunate financially, so that hasn’t been an issue. </p>
<p>The work world was tougher the further I got into it:sexism, probably better now than back then, and figuring out how to balance professional needs with family needs. Making lots more money, but more complicated.</p>
<p>Congrats on putting in 3 years. Be sure to come back on here after youve put in 13 and let us know if you fell the same. After 30 years let me tell you, easy is not how I would describe the real world.</p>
<p>
I got knocked on mine right away - I’m talking the first weeks of my first job out of college. For a variety of reasons (mainly bullying co-workers, which I had no idea how to handle) it was a nightmare. I ended up getting fired and going back to graduate school, more to regroup and lick my wounds than further my education. I did grow up a lot during that time, but it was an extremely hard way to do so and I wouldn’t wish my experiences on my worst enemy.</p>
<p>For me, each point in my life has been interesting, with its own challenges and rewards. School allowed me to focus more on academics and relationships. Life after that allowed the focus to shift back to family and career. I’ve always found a lot of good and some challenges of each time in my life. As others have said, sick kids, aging parents, retirement bring their unique issues as well. Somehow we figure out how to make things work and grow in the process. </p>
<p>Have had a lot of wonderful times as a student and since. Wouldn’t say either is perfect nor trouble-free, but have learned to enjoy living in the moment while planning for the future.</p>
<p>I have definitely had my share of challenges in life. From HORRIBLE jobs, to unemployment, to relationship troubles, to being a single mother, to SERIOUS financial trouble (resulting in bankruptcy), to the death of a sibling - to more positive challenges - changing jobs, buying my home, sending my S off to college… </p>
<p>I have gone through my share of stressful moments. But after more than 20 years “in the real-world”, I’d have to say that MOST of the time real-life is not very difficult. As human beings we settle into routines and the majority of real-life is realatively monotonous. We just repeat a cycle of going to work, doing our jobs, heading home for dinner, watching some TV or reading a book, then heading to bed for the night. I even recently told my S, just that, that real-life is going to seem relatively easy and boring for him once he gets through many of the stressors he’s facing in college.</p>
<p>Give it time … the “real world” will get more difficult in time. Life generally brings challenges to even the most upbeat, optimistic person. I recall counting my blessings that my parents and my in laws were in good health. Not long afterward, it all went to he** in a hand basket & my life was turned upside down by my mom’s illnesses. That’s life. All of a sudden … bam! out of nowhere. </p>
<p>On the positive side, the difficult times do make the easy times seem that much sweeter.</p>
<p>Another to echo that the post college/pre kid years maybe easier but times will come when you don’t have enough money, enough time (or both) or enough energy to do everything that needs done. </p>
<p>There will be weeks when the water heater explodes (hullo $800 and water everywhere) and your kid’s school calls because he is vomiting and you have a brief due in court by the morning that you planned on working on today…nevermind that you are underwater in your mortgage, you just this week bought a new sax for another kid and your spouse is flirting on facebook with an old ex.</p>
<p>^^^^^Lol.</p>
<p>After a rough couple of years early on, we have been blessed financially for decades. I’m here to tell you that that does not soften the blow when your spouse gets cancer, a child goes through hell, a parent dies suddenly and unexpectedly, you go through a rough patch with family or spouse, experience challenges in your career, etc.</p>
<p>I feel that I’ve been blessed with a happy life for the most part. But all those things have happened to me, so while feeling generally very fortunate, I would not say that life has been “easy.”</p>
<p>It probably won’t be for you either, but you can certainly find much joy in life nevertheless.</p>
<p>We generally are as happy as our least happy loved one (assuming one of them is unhappier than us). This especially applies when the unhappy person is your kid or parent. No one can know what the future brings, but for most of us, it brings a lot of happy things and challenges–we choose how to embrace them and take things in stride. Chronic illness in ourselves and/or loved ones adds more complexity to the mix. Staying flexible and positive is a good thing and has helped me overcome many bumps along the way.</p>
<p>I think you will find that easy quickly gets boring. You are a successful college graduate achieving what you your goal of working at a job you are trained for and getting paid well for it. You will want more in your life. You may want a better job, or your own business. You may in the future want a spouse and to have children. Both take more time and money than one imagines. Don’t get me wrong they can be the cause of great joy (and misery if things don’t go well), however they will make life more challenging. Enjoy your new independence, however, realize that this is just the beginning of real life not what is to expected forever.</p>