High School Never Ends: Surviving Adulthood is Like Surviving Teenagehood, With Bills

We often forget that adults are just children with bills.

“High School Never Ends” by Bowling for Soup says it all: “The only thing that matters is climbing up that social ladder... Doesn’t matter if you’re 16 or 35.” So true. High school really never ends.

Whether you work at a corporation, own a business, or are getting your MBA, you probably still deal with the same nonsense you did as a teen, just with more wrinkles and less acne. The demanding bosses, the office politics, the mind-numbing meetings?—?it’s all just adult versions of the teachers, cliques, and classes we couldn’t wait to escape.

We like to think we’ve moved past all that drama once we enter the “real world.” But have we really?

The teen experience never disappears; it just puts on a suit and tie. Our priorities may shift as we take on more adult responsibilities, but who we are inside—our fears, our desires, and our quirks—stays the same.

No matter how old we get, a part of us remains the awkward, angsty teen, desperate to be accepted. We hide that truth behind the shield of “adulthood,” whatever that means. But peel back the layers, and you find we’re all just faking it, hoping no one discovers we have no idea what we’re doing.

The good news is that if you survived high school, you can survive anything. You made it through hormonal chaos, peer pressure, body changes, and all those oh so cringe coming-of-age moments. You endured clique drama, school dances, bad breakups, and the college application process.

You survived without knowing who you were, where you fit in, or what mark you would one day make on the world. If you made it through those crazy four years in one piece, you should pat yourself on the back.

Because as an adult, you’ll channel the skills you honed as a teen—adaptability, resilience, and determination—to navigate work stress, financial burdens, and other grownup problems. With some perspective, you’ll handle difficult bosses and colleagues the way you handled strict teachers and classroom jerks.

You’ll tackle dreaded tasks by mustering the same courage it took to walk the halls between classes. When you stay cool under pressure, meet tight deadlines, and manage workplace conflicts, you’ll do so with the calm and poise you perfected as a teen.

And on bad days, when adulting gets tough, you’ll draw strength by remembering all you have already survived.

Sure, adulthood brings real challenges, but it pales next to the trial by fire called adolescence. So when life gets you down, flaunt your metaphorical teenage battle scars with pride. Let them remind you how far you’ve come and how much you can endure.

Those scars are proof you can handle anything because you already handled the terrifying rite of passage known as the teenage years. You slew that beast. Now go slay adulthood. The real world doesn’t stand a chance. But don’t forget to pay your phone bill.

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