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adulthood

Education

8 classes that should be required for all students before they hit adulthood

If we want to prepare kids for adult life, we've got some glaring gaps to fill.

Photo by Sam Balye on Unsplash

Why aren't we teaching students the things they really need to know as adults?

I remember sitting in advanced algebra and trigonometry class in high school wondering if I was really ever going to use any of what I was learning. Math at that level meant nothing to me in a practical sense. I planned to study English and education to become an English teacher, so I couldn't imagine why I'd need to learn the ins and outs of trig.

As it turned out, some of what I learned came in handy in the functions class I was required to take to fulfill my math requirement in college. But again, I found myself sitting in class with zero idea of why I was learning this level of math and suspecting that I was never going to actually use that knowledge in my adult life.

Now I'm a middle-aged adult and I can say with absolute certainty that I was right. In 27 years, I have not used anything I learned in functions. Not once. Not even a little bit. I agonized my way through that class to eek out a B-minus and to promptly forget everything I'd learned because it was utterly useless to me.

To be clear, higher math isn't useless—it's amazing. It was just completely useless to me.

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Science found 4 categories of independence in young adults. Where do you belong?

More young people than ever are living with their families. But does that make them less independent?

For about four months last year, I needed to live with my family.

A month after I turned 26, my housing plans fell apart. Suddenly, I found myself living in Seattle with few resources and nowhere to go.

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This former child actor's Instagram post about growing up is on point.

Dylan Sprouse is teaching us all a thing or two about growing up.

\n\nIf you were a child of the '90s, the Sprouse twins might be pretty familiar faces.

The Sprouse twins were household names during the early 2000s. Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images.

Now, Dylan and Cole Sprouse are all grown up. As proud alumni of New York University, the twins have gone their separate ways, with Cole pursuing other acting endeavors, and Dylan doing, well, whatever he wants for the time being.  

Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Katsuya.

But Dylan says he gets asked what he's doing all the time, to the point of exhaustion. And this week, he took to Instagram to address the question.

Sprouse called out the hypocrisy of a society that expects him to keep up a career he indulged in as a child. 

Screenshot courtesy of the writer.

Screenshot courtesy of the writer

He also called out that it's OK to be doing nothing and to work on figuring out what his next steps might be.

"I'm enjoying myself by relaxing, traveling, consuming media, and continuing to learn" but the truth is is that unless I'm doing something bigger and better than what I've previously done, people deem it regressive." 

It’s no secret that many child stars struggle to transition into adulthood. Drugs, alcohol, and unemployment tend to find even the most successful of child stars, ultimately setting the stage for a less than desirable adulthood.

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The pressures of Hollywood can be daunting, and for a kid working in the industry since they were practically in diapers, it makes a lot of sense that they may want to take their time in deciding what's next. The Sprouse twins have emerged pretty smoothly, though, and that's impressive.

The Sprouse twins enjoyed growing up out of the spotlight. Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

Plus, these guys are only 23 years old! The same age that Tina Fey was working at a YMCA. The age that Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche had recently finished writing her first play and was getting ready to pursue other projects. The age when Oprah was fired from her first journalism job. The age that Ralph Lauren was still serving in the army

Whether you're a recent college graduate or a former child star, you don't always know what you want, and that's totally normal! As Dylan admits in his post, while Cole is pursuing acting, that may not be what he wants to stick with — a concept that's totally OK in your 20s. 

So Dylan, as a former 10-year-old fan of your hilarious show, I have three words for you: You do you.

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Entering adulthood isn't always easy.

From work to personal relationships, a lot of things can change as you jump into "the real world." Artist Caitlin Quijano gets that, so she combined art and humor to create images that other young adults could relate to.

"As a 20-something figuring out work, marriage, and finances, the demands and challenges of adulthood are something I think about a lot," Quijano told Upworthy in an email. "I've always loved to de-stress through comedy, and that is reflected in the topics I cover."

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