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When we’re growing up, we’re always told that we can be anything, do whatever we want. Teachers tell you to dream big, having you draw pictures of yourself in your dream job. Poorly drawn portraits of astronauts and firefighters and doctors filled up our parents’ fridge and we went through our tiny days without a care in the world, clutching the dream that if we work hard enough, we can be anything.
And while there are exceptions to this—I’m sure there are a handful of people reading this who stuck to their dreams and managed to make their dream a reality—when you grow up, you start to realize that not every dream comes true. Sad? Of course. But hey, that’s just how life goes.
Okay, okay, maybe it’s not that your dreams don’t come true, maybe it’s that your dreams change. The idea of being a firefighter sounds cool when you’re a kid, but as you grow up, you realize how much danger goes into the job and take a path that allows you to help people in different ways than running into burning buildings.
And then there are some things that you simply let go of, recognizing how unrealistic they are. Sure, living on the moon sounds dope as hell, but it’s just not in the cards right now, and probably won’t be until much, much later on. I’ve got a couple of these in my back pocket that I had a lot of hope for, but now that I’m 25, I have to accept reality and let them go.
1. Having visible abs.
You know, there was a point in time where this was realistic. I played football in high school and it’s not like I was completely shredded, but you could probably fit one and a half of high school me inside of current me. And then I went to college and realized that drinking is a lot more fun than working out. Like, seriously, way more fun. And ever since then, I just kind of accepted that people who had anything remotely close to visible abs were genetically wired that way and I’m not and there’s nothing I can do about it.
2. Becoming a rock star.
I don’t think I’ve ever written about this so here goes nothing: I was big into singing growing up. I’m talking show choir in high school (we won nationals twice, but it’s not a big deal). I did musical theater. I was in a band in high school and even though we broke up before going to college, damn it, I was going to be a rock star.
Let me be clear when I say that this was no “oh yeah, that would be cool” kind of dream. I took this shit so seriously. Grew my hair out, drew all over my guitar, even spent some afternoons playing guitar on street corners around my college town—you know, just in case there were any big record execs who happened to be passing through Columbia, Missouri. In retrospect, I don’t know how my friends didn’t make fun of me more often.
I’m not really sure when it hit, but at some point around junior year I realized my singing voice wouldn’t cut it in the big leagues, and I just wasn’t cut out for the starving artist lifestyle.
3. Being taller than 5’10.
Been stuck at 5’8” since I was 14 years old. I held out hope for this one for the longest time, but once you hit 25, you’ve officially stopped growing vertically and start growing horizontally.
4. Making six figures by age 25.
Looking back now, this seems completely outlandish. If you’re like me and have no interest in numbers or laws or science, generally speaking, it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll be making six figures by the time you’re 25. However, all of us have gaps in our knowledge that cause us to have some insane dreams. Mine, for example, is knowing anything regarding money; how much the average person makes, how much it costs to get you places, how much things cost in general, etc. So when I was growing up, I always thought to myself that it would not be unrealistic to be making tons of cash by the time I hit a quarter century.
It’s astonishing how wrong I was.
5. Be in a relationship with Taylor Swift.
Lol.
6. Living in Los Angeles immediately after college.
I’ve always loved LA. Most people hate it, and I understand why. It’s superficial, shallow, the traffic sucks, everything’s expensive, everyone works in “the industry,” and the list goes on. I think that’s part of why I’m drawn to it. I’ve never lived in a place where people care so much about surface-level things, plus I love The O.C. I still think if I were to ever make my way out there, I would come at it with a sarcastic, cynical attitude that would set me up to be a less druggy Hank Moody type.
But living there on my own right after college without a job lined up? C’mon.
7. Become famous by chance.
I would always have dreams of being interviewed on some late night talk show and telling some crazy story of getting famous by being in the right place at the right time. The right person would hear me singing while chopping veggies at the restaurant where I worked, or I would walk out of the dressing room wearing new pants at just the right time. I would wake up and think, “Damn, maybe today’s the day!”
I still have those dreams, but now when I wake up I think, “Shit, I hope the Blue Line isn’t delayed again.” .
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Charlie
Using sarcasm as a defense mechanism since 1993. At any given moment I'm either tired, drunk, or stressed out. Get at me at charliepgp@gmail.com or whatever.
@therescharlie
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The only way you’re going to get famous by chance and somehow hit it off with T-Swift is by moving to LA.
That’s how you get three birds stoned at once.
That’s a shit rope Bubbles
RIP to the greatest trailer park supervisor in history
Not to go all Nived here, but you know what’s more depressing? Realizing some of your dreams and then finding out they suck. Make an impressive salary? Yup, only what’s more impressive is how much all the shit you’ll have to spend money on like daycare and property taxes is. Be a big shot at work? Yeah I sit in meetings with execs all the time, and you find out how scattershot and pea brained they are. I carry a work cell phone (15y/o me “OMG!”) but that means work can bug me 24/7, and does. I mange people and they can’t help but fuck shit up all the time. Drive a nice car? I didn’t know what “car payments” were when I was a kid, nor did I realize how the car is boring way before the payments are done. Go out to fancy restaurants? Yup, but you’ll be fat. Do whatever you want all the time? Not when you’ve got a wife and kids and bosses and bills and parents and inlaws and on and on.
Goddamn this is depressing. I need a beer.
I live in one of the wealthiest counties in the south (mistake), and dear god the property tax. Every year it goes up nearly a grand.
I live in a very very unimpressive 60 year old 1300sq ft house in a nice but not that nice suburb of Chicago. $10k a year in property taxes.
It’s even worse in California, especially now that there’s a federal deduction limit of $10K. It’s one of the reasons that I’m hesitant to buy anything right now. And if not for Prop 13, it’d be so much worse.
Which burb incredible? I am looking to buy or build out in Kane county potentially
Arlington Heights. Cook county taxes are bad, but anything outside Cook is even worse.
I’m in dupage right now (lombard/downers grove) is Kane or will worse?
@Hoosier you should be able to google property tax estimates, most county governments have a site. You could always move back to Indiana.. I pay just under 2 grand on my taxes here
@tina thanks I’ll check it out!! I wish I could be in Indiana! Haha I miss it
I have no idea. I lived in McHenry and now Cook, I’ve never lived south.
Hey man, at least we have the ‘Cats*
*until we win 30+ games but inevitably bow out in the first weekend to a good team that somehow dropped to an 8/9 seed… damn, now I’m even more upset
Damn, that doesn’t help. I am wearing my Villanova dress shirt today though.
How many PGPers went to Vallanofun?
Not enough of us apparently.
I went to Creighton. Looking forward to our ass beating tomorrow.
**Saturday
Just because you didn’t realize some of these wild dreams doesn’t mean you have to stop Charlie. Just think of the new dreams you can have in your mid 20s. Like earning the respect of your coworkers or being able to have a fun night out without a three day crippling hangover. Hell, sometimes I even dream of a world in which not everyone thinks I’m an idiot. Dream big or go home
I think a world in which not everyone thinks I’m an idiot is way too much to ask for. The rest of it is fine
Win some, lose a lot. That’s life.
It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That’s not a failure, that’s life.
If you’re happy with your life, job, marriage, etc. 75% of the time you’re absolutely crushing it.
2 out of 3 ain’t bad
Turing 25 in two months, so this really hits home, especially the height hopes. Freshman year of high school my doctor said I would likely grow to 6’3″. Been 5’10” since I was 19. Fucking quack.
I live in LA and it’s the goddamn worst. Yeah, the weather is amazing and there are a lot of
Young people here, but the traffic and shitty LA attitudes really weigh on you. Takes 45 min to drive 4 miles. I literally think about escaping to Montana or Wyoming everyday.
I cannot “nice work” this enough
I got a little buzz going last night and started looking at houses in Montana on Zillow. Let’s get the hell of out LA
It’s a life goal of mine to make it to 5’1″ and I’m really just setting myself up for failure here.. Maybe by the time I turn 25 in 5 months I’ll have given up on that goal
My goal was to get out of the midwest by my mid-to-late 20’s, but I’m honestly glad to still be here. Especially considering my hometown has gotten much cooler since I was growing up and most of my college friends ended up moving here too. Sometimes it’s good when things don’t work out like you thought they would!
I’ve thought drinking was more fun than working out for the longest time. I recently started working out to get back into lacrosse playing shape and man I forgot how much better you feel afterwards. Hoping to continue this 5/6 days of the week and cut back on drinking. Those 2 or 3 days hangovers are brutal.