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Welcome to the real world
Topic Started: Aug 10 2007, 01:01 PM (685 Views)
CrashTest
Pisa-Carp
At what age did you come face to face with the real world, outside of the protection of home/family?

And how was it? (This can be anything from starting a job after you graduate, to just living out on your own, etc.)

Heh, this year I really hit the real world big time.
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John D'Oh
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MAMIL
CrashTest
Aug 10 2007, 05:01 PM
Heh, this year I really hit the real world big time.

You could have fooled me. :lol:
What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket?
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CrashTest
Pisa-Carp
Well, I guess I have my foot in the door at least!
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LWpianistin
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HOLY CARP!!!
When I went to bed hungry a couple of times to pay the bills.

And how are you today?
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M&M's
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Fulla-Carp
When my mom died at when I was 12 in alot of ways.
My child shows GOOD CHARACTERIZATION in an ongoing game of D&D
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Frank_W
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Resident Misanthrope
17 years old, having graduated high school with diploma on January 23rd, 1987. I had all of my enlistment paperwork done six months prior to graduating, and I left my parents' home on January 25th, 1987, for Army boot camp.

I processed through the MEPS (Military Entry Processing Station) in Fresno, California, and a few days later, flew to St. Louis, Missouri, and began my training at Fort Leonard Wood.

I didn't go back to my parents' home for two years, and when I did, it was only for Leave. On Christmas day, 1992, I received my Honorable Discharge and remained in Japan.

I married at age 22, and remain happily married to the same woman, to this day. I have never asked my parents for a dime, and indeed, when I first was discharged from the Army, my wife and I lived on Cup Noodle for three months, until we could get ourselves established.
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
13.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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John D'Oh
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MAMIL
Frank_W
Aug 10 2007, 06:03 PM
I lived on Cup Noodle for three months, until we could get ourselves established.

That stuff has quite the opposite effect on me.
What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket?
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Aqua Letifer
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ZOOOOOM!
Unfortunately, I was forced to grow up and deal with life's issues a little sooner than most. I guess if I had to put a date on it, I'd say July in 1989; I was only 7 years old.

I was watching TV at a friend's house. It was just a small group of us; it was raining outside and we were hoping to get a soccer game in before it turned dark. We were watching MTV and Milli Vanilli was having their famous concert in Connecticut.

Yeah. We all know what happened from there. The discovery, the media backlash, the sadness.

It never occurred to me until that day that pop singers could be that shallow. All this time it wasn't their voices? I felt lied to, betrayed. It would be several months before I could watch MTV, and the experience made me realize just how cold the world could be. I just couldn't understand how they could do that to their fans.

Luckily, liquid television got pretty good in the early 90's, and I was able to buy the hatchet with MTV. I learned a lot from the experience, and I think I'm the better for it. I just wish it didn't happen to me at such a young, impressionable age.
I cite irreconcilable differences.
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Frank_W
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Resident Misanthrope
John D'Oh
Aug 10 2007, 05:22 PM
Frank_W
Aug 10 2007, 06:03 PM
I lived on Cup Noodle for three months, until we could get ourselves established.

That stuff has quite the opposite effect on me.

:lol: I won't touch the stuff, now. My wife still buys it and eats it occasionally. Bleargh...

AL, I remember my younger brother being all tore up over the Milli Vanilli fiasco. LOL
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
:hug: Aqua buddy, thanks for sharing. It's a cruel world out there.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Truer words have never been spoken.
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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John D'Oh
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MAMIL
ivorythumper
Aug 10 2007, 08:10 PM
:hug: Aqua buddy, thanks for sharing. It's a cruel world out there.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

I think maybe death would have been preferable to that experience. Not my death, of course, but death.
What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket?
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kenny
HOLY CARP!!!
CrashTest
Aug 10 2007, 01:01 PM
At what age did you come face to face with the real world, outside of the protection of home/family?

          And how was it? (This can be anything from starting a job after you graduate, to just living out on your own, etc.)

       Heh, this year I really hit the real world big time.

Imagine with NO family money, even for help with school.

With money that you did not earn you have not yet entered the real world.
You may never have to with a rich family.

I'm not criticizing.
It is just that reality REALLY hits you at age 18 when you have to pay rent, tuition, car, food and all expenses on what you can earn.
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CTPianotech
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Fulla-Carp
17

When a few weeks after graduating she said, "I think we're in trouble.."
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Jolly
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Geaux Tigers!
When you get up at daylight, one cold morning when you're six years old, and go help your dad kill and butcher an animal you've been feeding for months, life is very real.

I was doing a man's work at 15...not in the A/C, but out building fence, hauling hay, and whatever odd jobs a kid could find. I've worked paper mill, sawmill, and for a natural gas transmission company. Mom and Dad were middle class, but not enough to give me a free ride through school, so I worked 30 - 40 hours a week, and that's how I mostly paid for college.

Real world? Kid, I've been living in the real world most all my life....
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros
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bachophile
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HOLY CARP!!!
49

my renal colic.

first medical event of my life.

i realize im not going to be forever young.

a song i have always seen as a most beautiful prayer....

May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous,
May you grow up to be true,
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you.
May you always be courageous,
Stand upright and be strong,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy,
May your feet always be swift,
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift.
May your heart always be joyful,
May your song always be sung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.
"I don't know much about classical music. For years I thought the Goldberg Variations were something Mr. and Mrs. Goldberg did on their wedding night." Woody Allen
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bachophile
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HOLY CARP!!!
actaully, it was an answer off the top of my head.

i think my big realization in life was that there r alot of stupid people in positions of authority who can decide things about your life.

that came when i left home at age 18.
"I don't know much about classical music. For years I thought the Goldberg Variations were something Mr. and Mrs. Goldberg did on their wedding night." Woody Allen
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Axtremus
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HOLY CARP!!!
Are people confusing "living a hard life" with "living in the real world"?

The "real world" has most families supporting their kids through college (at least partial support). Lots of "real" parents do that and are very proud of it. The "real world" has most kids staying with their parents until they go to college.

If you had to live on your own at a very young age and you worked 60 hour week of hard labor to pay your own way through college, fine -- you had a "hard life," but it doesn't make your world any more "real" than the average kid whose college education is funded by some one else.
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kenny
HOLY CARP!!!
Axtremus
Aug 10 2007, 09:10 PM
Are people confusing "living a hard life" with "living in the real world"?

The "real world" has most families supporting their kids through college


Wow.

This reminds me.
A woman was asked what she thought the average person made annually.
She guessed $500,000.
That's her world.

In Ax's world "real" people pay their kids way through college.
People below that have what he calls a "hard" life.

To me people who pay their own way since age 18 are regular and if parents pay their way through college they are rich kids.

Once again, people vary.
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LWpianistin
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HOLY CARP!!!
Well, you can get all snotty, Ax, but Crash did pretty much ask when we first experienced the hard-life world, if you read the first post carefully.

And, yes, for many the real world is the hard life. Everyone's "real world" is different.
And how are you today?
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Axtremus
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HOLY CARP!!!
kenny,

I was just saying that those who lived a "hard(er) life" don't get to call the "world" of those who lived an "easy(ier) life" "unreal."

Within North America, I think it's a safe bet that there are more kids receiving parental support while going through college than kids not receiving any support. The "world" of that majority cannot be "unreal."

Worldwide, most people don't attend college at all -- does that mean our "world," the world of college-educated people, is any less "real" than theirs?

I've read about a young man in China who carries coal on his back and transport it by foot for a living. This young man carries 100+ pounds of coal every trip he makes. He does this 12~14 hours a day. And he makes less than $1 USD per day. He dreams of attending university and becoming an engineer one day, according to the interview a reporter did with him. Is our world any less "real" than his?

There are victims of the underworld sex trade, little girls in certain parts of South East Asia who got sold by their parents (some unknowingly) into child prostitution/slavery without ever getting to keep a cent of what's made off their flesh. Compare that to an unfortunate young American who, say, lost his parents at age 14 and have to work his ass off to survive, but at least he gets to keep the fruit of his labor... is this young American's "world" any less "real" than that of the slave-child-prostitute's world?

How about those gun-totting teen-age "jihadists" and "guerrillas" we sometime read about in news article? They live in war zones, they lose many family members in one war or another at a very young age, and they literally live by their riffles as teenagers. Is their world "real"? Suppose a young American patriot go enlist with the Army at age 18. I suppose there are occasions where he gets to sleep clutching his riffle too. Is this American soldier's "world" any "less real" than the world of those gun-totting "jihadists" or "guerrillas" operating out of Africa some where?
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schindler
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Fulla-Carp
17 - off to college with 200 dollars, and a one way bus ticket.
We're all mad here!
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Axtremus
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HOLY CARP!!!
LWpianistin
Aug 11 2007, 01:18 AM
Well, you can get all snotty, Ax, but Crash did pretty much ask when we first experienced the hard-life world, if you read the first post carefully.

And, yes, for many the real world is the hard life. Everyone's "real world" is different.

There will always be people who has (or have had) a "harder life" than you.
Would that make your world "unreal"?
Would that make your world "less real"?

I guess we disagree on whether "hard life" equates to "real world."
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AlbertaCrude
Bull-Carp
About 19 when my mother was diagnosed with Gehrig's Disease.

A person grows up pretty fast having to tend to a terminally ill parent.
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Larry
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Mmmmmmm, pie!
You didn't read the question, Ax. It was rather specific to being "outside of the protection of home/family".
Of the Pokatwat Tribe

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