To ask how 'grown up' you were aged 22?

[Soyamilkisniceintea]

I started my first job at 22 and looking back, I was really, really immature

What were you like at 22?

I had a full time job, mortgage and child I was a single parent at 23. Ds is now 22 and seems very immature to me.

I'd met dh, had dc1 and had bought a house together by the age of 22. I'd bought a flat by myself at 20 so I was really quite grown up looking back.

I'd quit uni by 22 and was severely depressed. I lived in a student house with really crap housemates, with a shitty full time job in catering.

At 25 I own my own home, have a job I love, a brilliant DP and a grumpy cat. Looking to start a family in a year or so.

TBH when I speak with people in their early 20s nowadays none seem really grown up. Yes, they have jobs and homes etc, a small number have children but few I actually know. Most have only been working properly for a year at most. And their lifestyle is still young and very much living for now, and lets face it - who'd blame them!?!

I suspect people who leave school at 16y/18y and go straight into work, and settle down quickly probably come across as being more grown up and, in some situations, more mature than those fresh out of university at 22y.

Not very grown up, but 22 was wonderful. I'd finished uni and spent 8 months travelling the world with dh. He was still my boyfriend at the time though. Best time of my life x

At 22 I had just graduated uni, was working full time and living with my boyfriend. We were planning on getting married and buying our own house, all very very boring (for me) and I had to get out.

I turn 25 next month, and I'm single, living back at home, planning holidays with friends, retraining and hoping to live abroad in the future. My mum has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer so that did throw a spanner in the works, but I'm trying to enjoy the time I have left with her and be happy.

I was three quarters of the way through my degree, living in a shared house with people I had nothing in common with and spending most weekends travelling to London to see my boyfriend. He was in the music industry so weekends were spent going to gigs and festivals and generally having a great time.

At some point that year I decided that the relationship was going nowhere as I didn't want to move to London and ditched him.

Is it bad to wonder what might have happened and where I'd be now if we were still together?

Married with one child and expecting 2nd

By my 22nd birthday, I had been married almost 2 years and was 38 weeks pregnant with my first DC. I think I was, in many ways, still a girl and I was not emotionally equipped to cope easily with the responsibilities of motherhood. I found the first few years very tough.

I thought I was grown up! I realised what I wanted to do with my life. But I was taking drugs every day and in an abusive relationship (physical, sexual and emotional). I'm now 26, in a good place career wise (still the same sector I wanted to be in, and I now have a child.
So not immature exactly but very messed up!

Blimey, seems like a lot of you had kids by 22!
I'm 22 in two months and I am nowhere near having kids. Although that may be because I'm incredibly shy and haven't had a boyfriend- can't really even imagine meeting one if I'm honest.
Still at university, about to do finals before graduating in July.

I spent 4 weeks working with on the Prime Minister's tour team for the General Election campaign then started my first "proper" job after university. Great social life, great sex life and thought the world was my oyster!

I was nowhere near having kids at 22 either toffee

Got persuaded to try for one two years later. It was seven years after that before I agreed to do it again!!

At 22 I had a mortgage, had paid of my car, had a job paying around 25k a year, two cats, was engaged and had a very good life.

And for anyone saying 22 is a normal age for a first job because of Uni then no... you're wrong. You should have had a job when at Uni too. I, and many others, wont hire graduates with no/little work experience. Your degree means fuck all to most if you have no experience of office politics, internal customer service and proof of work ethic.

At 31, I have a mortgage, a new (to me) car, work mostly freelance, have a dog, a husband and I'm almost 40wks pregnant with my first child.

I had been working for a year, lived in my own flat (rented) and had my first serious relationship. Not particularly grown up though .

And for anyone saying 22 is a normal age for a first job because of Uni then no... you're wrong. You should have had a job when at Uni too. I, and many others, wont hire graduates with no/little work experience. Your degree means fuck all to most if you have no experience of office politics, internal customer service and proof of work ethic

How do you explain all the posters saying they were IN their first real job after uni on this thread then? We all got hired! How are we wrong about that?

Had my first BTL property, had been working 2 years & was planning a round the world trip

If an employer would seriously reject me because I didn't work in some crappy fried chicken shop then I wouldn't want to work for them anyway! How silly.

You don't have a one bed flat in London do you Naze ...?

Oh come on, how are most uni students going to have an office job FFS? They usually work in supermarkets or for Deliveroo or similar.
What about all the graduate work schemes? One of the ones I'm interested in doesn't seem to stipulate "knowledge of office politics".

Thought i knew it all, would do it all, and have it all.

How funny is that thinking back?

I was having a great time going out and being a normal 22 year old but nowhere near the mindset i think i should have had .

As the saying does go, youth is wasted on the young. Clearly.

I got some of it I guess, but never all. i am happy though,

Oh and I started as a new grad on nearly £25k! incidentally a little bit more than I'm on now and I have tonnes more work ethic and work experience.

Employers who have snobbery about grads are worth avoiding anyway, same sort of people who butt in all the time with "university of life" if anyone ever dares refer to their studies!

I graduated at 22, had started my career, bought a house just before my 23rd birthday with my now DH who I had been living with for 1 year. We entertained a lot - dinners and parties, kept our house fairly nice. So pretty grown up on paper although in reality we were a bit wild at that age, drank to excess and occasionally dabbled in drugs.

I'm 22. I've been teaching for nearly 2 years and live in a rented flat with a friend (before that, my boyfriend). Been in a relationship for 3.5 years.

I don't feel grown up at all.

anyway, completing a good degree with a good grade takes a fuck load of work ethic and self motivation. There's a tonne of "office politics" in settings outsidda offices you know!