"Real life is just like high school"

[llama112]

I feel like it is relatively similar, yeah. At least sometimes.
Like at work and stuff. Promotions, career advancement, just getting a job - it depends on who you know, so that's kinda like popular people in high school.
But with my friends and stuff, honestly, it doesn't seem very "high school"-like, all those cliques and whatnot. Everyone gets along, everyone loves each other, all that. It's like a big family. And most of my friends, at least that "group" is not high school-like at all, I mean they are nice to everyone. That's what I like.
But with other people that I meet, yeah a lot of cliques and stuff.
But I'm only 21, who knows what could change!

 

[powdakilla]

The responses here are blowing my mind honestly. The reason real life is nothing like high school, is because you have a choice. Obviously you can drop out of high school, I did, but I went back because the stupid diploma gets you places.
In 'real' life though, you always have a choice. Don't like your job, get a new one. Don't like your friends and you have a whole world of people to make new friends with, and the resources to do that with. You will always have a majority of fuckwits in society, called the lowest common denominator, but as an adult you have a choice to be around them or not.
Maybe I am lucky to have been around a lot of people who aren't caught up in that shit, but god. Alpha Male posturing, or beautiful girl sense of entitlement, or bragging about the material goods you have, or just not developing that adult mindset that someone mentioned before, would get you cast aside so fast from the groups of people I have known over the years. And that's covering a pretty wide demographic.

 

[llama112]

The responses here are blowing my mind honestly. The reason real life is nothing like high school, is because you have a choice. Obviously you can drop out of high school, I did, but I went back because the stupid diploma gets you places.
In 'real' life though, you always have a choice. Don't like your job, get a new one. Don't like your friends and you have a whole world of people to make new friends with, and the resources to do that with. You will always have a majority of fuckwits in society, called the lowest common denominator, but as an adult you have a choice to be around them or not.
Maybe I am lucky to have been around a lot of people who aren't caught up in that shit, but god. Alpha Male posturing, or beautiful girl sense of entitlement, or bragging about the material goods you have, or just not developing that adult mindset that someone mentioned before, would get you cast aside so fast from the groups of people I have known over the years. And that's covering a pretty wide demographic.

I kind of get what you mean, at least with friends.
But things like family, job, etc. You can't always choose it.

Although I do love my job, it is a lot of social things, knowing the right people, etc. to get any advancement in the company.
Unfortunately, not just everyone can just "quit their job and get a new one".

 

[Cyc]

I've said this about the workplace and life in general occasionally - when I say it I'm talking about cliques, bitchiness, bragging about how great your life is and social structure. I stand by that, some adults still behave like they're in high school in terms of how they relate to other people, people who might be a bit different to them or people they might see as being lower down the food chain of life.

I mean priorities might be different; in high school and early 20s in some circles it might be more shallow life goals; body image, latest mobile phone, fashion, the latest bar or club. Queue 10-15 years down the track and people are talking about how much their homes are worth, how much they earn and how their kids are doing in private school. I've seen alpha male behaviour in 30 something men and bitchiness from women in their 30s and 40s and even older, towards other women. In fact, I would go so far to say that the older some people get, they worse they are - I've seen 18 year olds with more maturity than some older people.

I liked school for the most part but I was glad to leave it behind. Uni was great, loved it, made friends, had a great time, was a positive rite of passage. Then I started working and it was like I was in high school all over again for the reasons above. I've made good friends at work but I've met quite a few people I'd gladly never see if I had a choice because of their stupid unspoken games, rules and behaviour.

Nice insight Miss_vanilla. I really have to agree with this, but as a caveat mention that the group of adults you spend time with factors heavily here. If you're at work it might be your corporate culture, and if it's a club or a league, it will depend on the level of ego and competition involved.

I didn't mind high school, but the thought of reliving it makes me want to crawl out of my skin.

I also think as adults we have to be mindful about sophisticated the schoolyard is. There are certain social subtleties that didn't really factor when you're a kid and those have to be recognized. I find adults tend to bullshit more.

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

Good insights all around, I'd say. It seems what we're getting down to is that people who run in circles where there's a lot of oneupsmanship are the ones who tend to liken their lives to high school. So the question that then comes to my mind is, do people choose to run in these sorts of circles knowing full well that keeping up with the Joneses is a required part of it all, or do most people just find themselves in these kinds of social situations unknowingly, perhaps in the process of seeking something else entirely? Because there are social circles that award status to the things that make one a truly good person, instead of the things that just look good and upstage the guy/girl next to you. I've run in such circles, I know they exist, and I daresay they're easier to find as an adult than as a teenager. Do people not join or create such groups, and instead just curse the social landscape they're in, more often because they're trapped by circumstance, or more often because they're ignorant of ... anything else?