<p>I was thinking about this thread today after talking with an acquaintance who is unfailingly positive. She lives alone, no pets, or sig other, doesn’t work for pay or volunteer and who fills her time by going to local clubs to listen to music, generally by herself.
You cant talk to her about anything real, because she tries to convince you that you should live your life unencumbered like herself.</p>
<p>Personally, I like having people & animals in my life who need me & depend on me and that I need & depend on. Life is its most vibrant when its messy.
Listening to her go on & on about how good she has it reminds me of the phrase The lady doth protest too much, methinks
;)</p>
<p>Yes! I always had the best luck, in EVERYTHING. School, work, marriage, kids - all wonderful. Then one day, my oldest son was diagnosed with a severe mental illness. A few months after that, his younger brother was diagnosed with a different mental illness. Life has not been easy or lucky since then. BUT I believe that DH and I were picked by God to be the parents of these boys, and they are pretty darned lucky to have us (even tho the 18-year-old doesn’t believe that, ha).</p>
<p>Enjoy your 20s, before you have a house, kids, bills, and more bills.</p>
<p>Can be easier. If you get a job you like, that pays more than what you expect to have to pay and have extra for fun, live in an area you like, around people you know, it can be just great. Otherwise you can be having a much more difficult time.</p>
<p>I know kids who are back home with parents after 4 years away at college, and that can be painful for both parents and kid. When I read about posters contemplating or taking huge loans, I can just see that as something that is going to make that real world life a lot harder. Crazy to borrow to go away to school and then have to come back home because you can’t afford to live on your own and repay those loans. </p>
<p>But yes, one can have a more enjoyable life out of college. There also often comes a time when one is just ready to finish scholl and enter “the real world”.</p>
<p>Emeraldkitty-You are so correct. I hear people say that they can’t wait until the kids are grown and pets are gone, so that their houses stay clean. No! I want messy if it means that my life is emotionally richer. Bring on the grandchildren and let’s get another dog!! </p>
<p>acollegestudent- maybe it sounds like a downer but it is reality BUT there is great joy too. I am very happy with my life even with some of the challenges and disappointments.</p>
<p>There is joy too. For every day that some kid vomits or some dog eats plastic, another kid does amazing work and the dog is overjoyed to see you when you get home.</p>
<p>I think the real world is fantastic. I remember people saying highschool was the best time of your life, and then saying it was college. I feel really badly for those people.</p>
<p>I think staying away from a mortgage and kids until I’m ready for them is a big part of my happiness. That and I also spend very little- i think living paycheck to paycheck adds a lot of undue stress to people of all income strata.</p>
<p>I also really enjoyed life after college for about 2 years after graduation. But things don’t stay the same.</p>
<p>The reason the “real world” is harder is that there is no ordained path on which you get X if you do Y. Also, as you get older you pick up responsibilities to others, unless you live like a hermit. Francis Bacon wrote that “a man who hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune.” When you have family, you are more fearful of uncertainty and contingency because you need to support people. Young, carefree people don’t have those problems; of course, an unencumbered life is also a lonely one.</p>
<p>Absolutely. In college, if you go to class, study, and apply yourself, IN GENERAL you will do well enough to pass your classes and graduate (note that I said “in general.”) In real life, you can go to work, do a good job, work hard - and yet, you can still get passed over for promotion, or (as in my case) you can suddenly lose your job for no reason, just because. </p>
<p>And as NJSue says, it gets even more complicated when you have family for whom you feel responsible. The older you get, the more you realize that life is precious and sometimes capricious: you know people who have had babies die, you see good friends suddenly cut down by illness, you see deserving coworkers … well, you get the picture. Life is joyous but also unpredictable.</p>
<p>I think college was waaay easier. Though some of the engineering classes were challenging, and I was very busy with ROTC and working…the level of responsibility was different. After having kids, I was always worrying and doing things for them, plus working. The decisions I made in my job and and for my family could be life or death. More freedom, far more pressure.</p>
<p>I’m looking forward to retirement. That will be the easy part.</p>