when did you start feeling like an adult? (brother, definition, feel)

[Scrat335]

When my daughter was born. She was 3 days old when I first held her and I knew then my life had changed forever. It was like the right hook of reality, it was good though.

[field l0ver]

in third grade after i beat every1 in around the world multiplication flash cards... thats when i really started feeling like an adult. haven't looked back

[Gabbythecat]

When I was 21, had just moved into my first apartment and was in the local Fred Meyer doing grocery shopping on my own for the very first time. I felt woefully inadequate for what was ahead - life as an adult.

25 years later I found myself married, with a house, property - my own family. I had just come from the bedside of my dying mother, and I was in the same Fred Meyer, getting groceries, and again, I felt woefully inadequate for what was ahead - life without my mother.

Both times I felt like an adult, just more so the second time. And both times I have learned and grown by the challenges that life brought me.

[shaylahc]

I don't know about "feeling adult"....but I felt, around 25, that I was finally a mature adult. Before that it just felt like I was playing house (I had 1 baby by 22, 2 by 24, and 3 by 26). We were always so much younger than all the other parents, we just felt out of place. Once I hit 30 I felt like I fit in more with the parenting crowd.

It's interesting because they say the human brain doesn't fully mature until age 25. That is the age in which I started feeling all grown up, so yay for me lol

[silibran]

After I had my first child. I remember feeling then that I was fully an adult.

[Mikala43]

I've lived on my own since a few days after turning 16, but really didn't feel like an adult until I was around 35. That's when I started feeling centered and comfortable in my skin.

[infocyde]

I never felt like I became an adult, but I do notice that I started calling younger people "the childs" as in like, "The childs are out tonight." while driving by a bar scene or something...maybe that is an indicator that you are old, when you start self separating. Also there are places where I just feel out of place now. Up into my 30ies I had no problem hanging out with college kids at say a coffee shop or a bar. Now I do feel out of place. See, look at that...I called them "college kids". I'm old.

[SwizzyFicket]

I'm 30. I've had a mortgage, held a director-level job, am married.

And yet, I still don't feel like a real, live grown-up at all. For example, I'll re-read an email that I sent to my accountant and think "What imposter wrote this? It certainly can't be me, I'm still in high school!"

[Bayarea4]

The first time I felt like an adult was when I was 18. I was still living at home and going to college. Some friends and I had spent the day at the beach, and since my boyfriend didn't have a car, another of our group of friends drove me home and walked me to my front door. His name was Chung. He was Korean, a gentle, polite and well-mannered young engineering student.

When I went inside, my father was standing in the front hall with a scowl on his face, obviously displeased. At first I was confused, and then I was completely taken aback as he launched into a tirade, telling me that no decent woman would allow herself to seen in public with a man of another race.

As he lectured me, I felt a seismic shift inside myself. Suddenly I knew in my heart that he was wrong - utterly and completely wrong - and that I had done nothing wrong. In that moment I realized that I was my own person, that his views were not mine and that I could no longer look up to him as an authority figure. Not long afterward I got a job, moved across the country and never looked back.

[rosebyanothername]

I am still working on it and I am at least twice your age!

My suggestions to you are:
-- don't get involved in drinking (and doing drugs) and use them as a way of avoiding and/or dealing with things which happen in your life.

--Plan out what you want to do with your life and where you would like to be (financially, emotionally, etc.) by a certain age.

--Figure out what you need to do to accomplish the previous statement.

--Think about what you say and do before you say and do them.

--Treat others like you would like to be treated.

--Keep your expectations of others in check.

--Focus on things you can control in your life, let go of things you cannot control.

--Try and do nice things for others. It will take you out of yourself and you may help someone who has more problems than you can imagine.

--Be happy! Read and watch uplifting and encouraging shows, jokes, etc.

(I didn't do most of these suggestions I have given you and I acted and behaved like a "kid" for years. I am working on them now, however, and feel more like an adult and am happier than I have been in the past several decades of my life.)