People reveal the moments they knew they were adults

Getting a new vacuum cleaner is pretty exciting, to be fair

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

As a 13-year-old, you probably looked at 18-year-olds and thought they were so grown-up. But when you reach 18, you realise you don’t feel grown-up at all. And by the time you’re in your mid-twenties you look at 18-year-old like they’re babies.

And it seems to continue through life, so do we ever really feel grown-up?

Well for some people, the answer is yes, and they’ve been sharing the moments they knew they were adults.

Many of us have the revelation when it sinks in that we’re actually doing a job we’ve been training to do for years, as one nurse discovered when she found herself near a medical emergency and someone called out for a doctor:

“My friend said, ‘Go help.’ To which I thought, ‘No, I'm not like a real nurse, I'm just, like, you know... A nursing student who just graduated from nursing school and works as a nurse... Oh s***, I think I'm a nurse. How the hell did that happen?” she explained.

“I jogged over and said ‘I'm a nurse’ and it was the weirdest feeling for people twenty or forty years older than me to be looking at me like ‘OKAY GOOD, YOU BE THE AUTHORITY HERE UNTIL THE PARAMEDICS SHOW UP.’”

And she did it, despite all the time feeling like she was “bulls***ting [her] way through the situation while thinking, ‘Oh f***, oh f***, why am I the adult in this situation, oh f***.’”

The concept struck a chord in the Reddit discussion: “I'm beginning to think that's all adulthood is,” one person responded.

“No one knows what they're doing. Everyone is winging it. Once you realise that, things start to make sense,” another added.

Feeling like an adult can often come from how others perceive you - the first time a stranger with a child moves them out of the way so “this lady” can get past rather than “this girl,” for example.

One man shared an unfortunate similar incident:

“I was cleaning my car in the driveway, and a neighbour’s kid walked up and said ‘Wow, you own a Corvette?’ I said yes, and I let him sit in it and stuff. He then gets out and runs to his dad, and said ‘Dad! that old guy over there has a Corvette!’ I was 34 at the time.”

For others, the sense of independence - and particularly being financially independent - makes them feel grown-up, as one woman explained:

“Every once in a while, I look around my apartment and remember that the only thing keeping a roof over my head is my own continued effort. It's weird.”

And she wasn’t alone: “When I pay my bills, of course I hate seeing the money leave, but then I get this sense of, ‘F*** yea, taking care of BUSINESS!’” one person replied.

Sometimes though, feeling grown-up is just realising your priorities have changed - whereas once you may have wanted to spend your Saturday nights dancing and drinking till 4am, maybe you now prefer sitting on the sofa with a takeaway and being in bed by 11pm.

Perhaps you’ve developed a love of knitting and gardening. Or maybe you just get excited by things you once thought boring, as one person revealed:

“A few weeks ago my wife and I got a new vacuum cleaner and I was excited to try it.”