4. Real People Save Up For Houses, Not Spring Break

In college, I never saved for anything unless it involved a vacation. I mean, why? Money was for spending, so I was going out! Again!

Here I am at my real job, making a real salary, and I'm mostly spending but I am saving a little bit. And I'm thinking where me and my fellow recently-graduated friends can go on our next trip: Cancun? Miami? VEGAS! The possibilities are endless.

Oh wait. Then I had a reality check at work today. *Real* people in the *real* world don't save up for trips to Vegas or Cancun. They save up for down payments on houses and condos.

Wait, what? A house? You mean, with a mortgage? But doesn't that mean you have to stay there...like...forever? In my world, the only people buying houses were parents! Since when do 26-year-olds buy houses?

This concept is beyond me. What if I want to move next year? or next month? Or next week?

3. In the Real World, "Summer Vacation" Has Been Replaced by "Wedding Season"

Ah, summer. I spent the past 20 summers of my life enjoying the outdoors, the beach, nights out with my friends, no school, no responsibility, and the occasional drinking till 3 am with my best friends. It was great.

This post isn't meant to lament the fact that I no longer have 3 months off in the summer. I was expecting that part, so I'm okay with it. What I didn't expect was that everyone and their fucking mom is getting married in the summer. Everywhere you turn, there is another wedding. My sister's wedding, my best friend's wedding, my best friend's second cousin's mother-in-law's second wedding, my co-worker's vow renewal ceremony. I mean really: summer is wedding season.

This probably seems like common knowledge to the average 30-year-old. Well, it was news to me. In the real world, it seems everyone is getting married all the time and everyone else is all excited about it. Especially in the summer, no one will shut up about all the weddings they're going to all the time. And there is an increasingly high number of Facebook profile pictures that involved girls in wedding dresses or bridesmaids dresses.

No one ever told me the real world was so wedding-obsessed.