{"id":1179562,"date":"2025-12-28T12:46:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T17:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/?p=1179562"},"modified":"2025-12-23T13:49:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T18:49:54","slug":"22-weird-ways-you-know-youre-kind-of-an-actual-grown-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/melanie-berliet\/2025\/12\/22-weird-ways-you-know-youre-kind-of-an-actual-grown-up\/","title":{"rendered":"22 Weird Ways You Know You\u2019re Kind Of An Actual Grown-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1.<\/strong> You honestly don’t care whether someone went to a \u201cgood\u201d school or has a \u201cgood\u201d job. Instead, you care whether or not they’re a quality human who can make you laugh and stuff like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. <\/strong>When evaluating potential life mates, you focus on their actual strengths instead of fixating on superficial traits like height, weight, breast size, butt shape, or bicep circumference. (At least, you take their actual strengths into serious consideration.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.<\/strong> You\u2019re less likely to get blackout drunk because you know that drinking your face off leads to being massively hungover<\/a> and you\u2019d rather not waste an entire day recuperating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.<\/strong> You\u2019re more risk averse in general\u2014not because you’re boring but because you’re no longer totally reckless. You’re suddenly aware that your actions have consequences, and that you’re not actually invincible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Read “The Life That’s Waiting<\/a>” for your next life chapter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

5.<\/strong> That said, you know that letting loose is critical to leading a happy<\/a>, fulfilling life. So you do get too drunk sometimes<\/em>, and you might push a boundary here and there. The difference is that your spontaneity is rooted in mindfulness to a certain extent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.<\/strong> You no longer entertain silly wish-I-were-a-super-model thoughts because you\u2019re relatively comfortable with the looks you\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7.<\/strong> Plus, you know that being super model beautiful wouldn’t fix your problems. Gisele grade looks might even lead to a few additional headaches in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8.<\/strong> You also realize that being hot wouldn’t make you good in bed, or guarantee mind-blowing sex<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9.<\/strong> Great sex<\/a> is something you\u2019ve finally figured out, and it mostly hinges upon chemistry, confidence, and comfort\u2014not friction from two six-packs rubbing against each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10.<\/strong> You don\u2019t give two shits about what is<\/em> or isn’t<\/em> \u201ctrendy.” You’d rather invest in a timeless piece of clothing than fall for something of-the-moment like an “it” bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11.<\/strong> You\u2019re pretty much over high-end labels and all clothes and accessories splattered with insignia. In fact, you kind of feel like a fool for letting Abercrombie & Fitch, Juicy Couture or any other brand exploit your chest and ass as advertising space in years past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12.<\/strong> The novelty and excitement of getting ready to go out at night has almost entirely worn off. The \u201cgoing out\u201d section of your wardrobe no longer really exists because you tend to rock your everyday gear to hang out with friends no matter the setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13.<\/strong> You rarely fight with any of your siblings<\/a> because you’ve grown to appreciate them for exactly who they are as individuals. You even lean on them for advice, especially when it comes to dealing with your parents<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14.<\/strong> When they\u2019re not driving you nuts, you feel sincerely grateful to your parents<\/a> for sacrificing so much on your behalf and for dealing with all of your crap over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15.<\/strong> You actually want<\/em> to brush your teeth regularly, sometimes even more than twice a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16.<\/strong> When it comes to skincare, you\u2019re more proactive than reactive. In other words, you wash your face and apply special creams to offset aging, not just to combat zits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

17.<\/strong> You finally understand why dry shampoo is so amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18.<\/strong> You’re also a big fan of hats, headbands, pigtails<\/a> and any other clever method of avoiding the tedium of hair washing for one more day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19.<\/strong> You schedule your own annual physicals and dental checkups without prompting from mom or dad. Usually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

20.<\/strong> You count yourself a master of calendar reminders. You’ve also made it a point to start showing up to all your appointments instead of flaking at the last minute because it suddenly seems super important not to be rude or unreliable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

21.<\/strong> On Sunday afternoons, you find yourself wondering what will be on 60 Minutes later. You’re also partial to the educational programming on channels like History, Discovery, and National Geographic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

22.<\/strong> You finally see the value in saving some money because the future doesn’t seem all that distant anymore. You plan to start setting a certain percentage of each paycheck aside like your parents taught you some time really<\/em> soon, maybe even now-ish. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You finally\u00a0see the value in saving\u00a0some\u00a0money\u00a0because the future doesn’t\u00a0seem all that distant anymore. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81912853,"featured_media":1179564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"thoughtcatalog_call_to_action":"","tc_post_redirect":"","thoughtcatalog_is_sponsored_content":"0","footnotes":""},"categories":[603198233,603229610],"tags":[],"anchortext":[],"posttemplate":[],"adcampaign":[],"coauthors":[180409051],"class_list":["post-1179562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-self-help","category-wellness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-11-Girl-Reading-Sabrina-Alexis-Bendory-Book-In-Paris-1.jpg","author_meta":null,"photo_credit":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81912853"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1179562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1179567,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179562\/revisions\/1179567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1179564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1179562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1179562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1179562"},{"taxonomy":"anchortext","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/anchortext?post=1179562"},{"taxonomy":"posttemplate","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posttemplate?post=1179562"},{"taxonomy":"adcampaign","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/adcampaign?post=1179562"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1179562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}