Fuck I'm in my mid 50's and it'll be at least another decade before I feel like an adult.

I was 33 when i realized we never grow up, but a lot of us like to pretend.

I remember going through this and realizing that the "adults" in charge, were in fact just like me and still not knowing what was going on.

Yeah, I started teaching 19 year olds when I was in my early thirties, and holy shit. Nothing makes you feel older (in a good way and a bad way)

First: they were culturally distinct from me, which I hadn’t noticed before with Gen Z, but being in a group of them made it noticeable. Second: they don’t know how to drink, but lord do they try- my students pregamed a night at a beer bar with vodka and red wine. Third: I learned a lot in my 20s.

I think I was mid-30s and referred to myself as a “young man” and my spouse went “not anymore” that I finally realized “oh yea, I guess I’m an actual adult now”

You're an adult when you realize that no one above you actually has the answers. They're just as clueless as you are, they're just clueless on a larger scale. Once you get to the point where you find the person who actually knows the answer, it's always "I'm the problem and I'm not going to fix it."

Hint: never