Did your life turn out like you'd imagined?

I’m 47, and my life is nothing like I’d imagined. It’s worse in many ways and better in a few.

Well, I’m not legally an adult, but I feel like one. My life has turned out nothing like I hoped it to be. I made the change to adulthood when I was slapped in the face with reality. There’s no difference except more work and no one takes your excuses.

In some ways it turned out better. Especially in the love department.

I follow my heart more than my mind. It has lead me in some interesting directions. I am kind of where I thought I would be. The journey to get where I am is not what I expected and I’m in a different career than I thought I would be when I was younger.

I have to say, life didn’t turn out anything like the way I thought it would… sometimes that hits me in a wave (I had one of those moments earlier on as I was driving) but I have no regrets. Life had been what life has been, and I am who I am as a result. I still follow my heart, I still take joy in the simplest beauty, and I’m still in love with being alive. I haven’t lost any of those qualities, and it is these that shine through… I’m glad I am where I am now, even though it’s not where I thought I’d be (by any stretch of the imagination), but I’m most glad that the fundamental things about me, that were important to me before the “transition into adulthood” are still the fundamental things about me.

@harple Brilliant answer, and lovely to hear.

I had a relatively dull and seamless transition into adulthood. There are still many mountains for me to scale in the future, surely, but life has flowed more than smoothly thus far. I’m content with where I am and it is, more or less, where I expected to find myself when I was younger.

I have never relinquished the hand of my younger self. I follow our hearts and minds as needed and will continue to do so for as long as I can :)

Good luck on your journey through life!

@muppetish thank you very much!

It’s been better than I could have ever hoped.

Oh no, never dreamed that I would be an insurance adjuster for 25 years. My life’s dream was to coach until I died. But, having said that, it was nice to retire at age 57. Worked for a great company.

Btw, has anyone ever heard a child say, “when I grow up, I want to be an insurance adjuster?” If you have, call a child psychologist asap!

@BoBo1946 Haha! I’ll keep an ear out around the schools!
Enjoy your retirement!

@lsdh182 Loll..thank you my friend!

Mostly it turned out exactly how I wanted it to when I was a little child. I didn’t expect the nightmarish endings but the Knight in Shining Armor and kids were all as I expected and wished for.

I don’t know yet. I haven’t got to the ending.

@Artistree loll…very good!

In some ways my life is much better than I would have imagined. When I was young I thought all married people eventually hated each other and yelled all of the time, and it turns out I still love my husband after 17 years of marriage, love spending time with him, still find him beautiful, and think we get along very well.

I have much more in regards to money and material things then I ever thought I would. I am not rich, just have more than I thought I would, and so that turned out better than I expected.

I live in a part of the country that I never would have guessed I would be living, so that is kind of surprising.

I have had health problems and fertility problems which have been an incredible disappointment and caused great sarrow and stress at times. I did not expect that, but I also was never so idealistic that I thought these type of things could never happen to me.

A work in progress.

From a career standpoint, yes, it stayed on track because I wanted to be in the military when I was young and here I am 22 years later still serving my country. Health wise, no, as I was diagnosed out of nowhere with Type II Diabetes in 2006 and my knees started to fail me in 2008.

Nope, but I still have lots of time.

No.

I’m not sure – my life isn’t past tense yet. I’ll let you know in another 50–70 years.

No, i didn’t think divorce would happen to me. I thought i’d be a happy old married lady until one of died- with kids and grandkids around.

My life is perfect because it is what it is.

The rest is just conditioning and programming.

I have found that doing what I thought I should do is not nearly as interesting as doing what everyone else thinks I shouldn’t! haha
Or, more to the point, what they themselves are too afraid to do.
Risk, take chances, jump off cliffs and discover that you CAN fly! lol