don't grow up. it's a trap.

Adulthood is sold like a luxury upgrade: more choices, more independence, your name on the deed. What they don’t print on the box is the fine-print subscription, rent, taxes, interest, insurance, “circles back Monday,” and the creeping feeling that your calendar owns you. Somewhere between “you can be anything” and “please see attached invoice,” the freedom we were promised gets repackaged as responsibility with better branding.

The trap isn’t just bills. It’s the story. The script says: optimize, advance, accumulate; smile through the grind because “that’s life.” We trade recess for networking, curiosity for credentials, play for productivity. Even our hobbies become “side hustles,” measured in output instead of joy. You start living like an inbox always something to process, never done.

And innocence? It doesn’t vanish it’s cautioned out of us. Wonder becomes risk management. Dreaming becomes “be realistic.” We learn to ask permission from invisible committees: will this look professional, sensible, adult? Childhood had boundaries; adulthood has invisible fences.

Yet the benefits are real: autonomy, resources, competence, the power to build a life. The problem is mistaking default adulthood for designed adulthood. Default adulthood is obligations on autoplay. Designed adulthood is consent choosing which burdens you’ll carry because they serve a life you actually want.

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LilMissAnonyMOUSE · F

This is spot on and I must say, very well written as well. I think you actually speak for the majority of us adults who feel this way about ''adulting''. Coming of age does come with all of the above-mentioned responsibilities and yes, many times, it feels like we signed up without reading between the lines contractual obligations that if we don't comply or adhere to, can be a trap for us. I think every phase in our lives; childhood, adulthood and old age, have different dynamics in the process of development and growth, and although it has good moments too , unfortunately it's not a bed of roses since we have to live in societies, finding ourselves caught within a vicious cycle of having rules to follow and putting up with the blunders of incompetent politicians and worse, see our rights disregarded and diminished as we get older.

Many times I daydream of living somewhere that's beautiful, surrounded by nature and yet isolated, far away from the loudness and chaos of the world. But reality is knowing you'd still have to pay taxes, pressured to vote(even if you have no respect for any political party) and our boundaries violated daily; where every personal data is no longer personal and submitted to the distortion of reality through modern technology.

But you know what? We still have our spirits, no matter how they try to break it, no one can take that away from us. That is our most vital power to be able to survive life,find happiness and purpose to our existence and help make life worth living.

Great post😊