There are a lot of things that can annoy me in this world and that's okay. The world is a vast place where I am not going to like everything and even though I may not like these things, I don't hate them. It takes a lot to make me actually hate something, and with that being said, there is one thing in the world that I hate more than anything else and that is a saying that my parents use all the time, and it's not just my parents who say it either. All parents inevitably say this one phrase and this phrase is: "Welcome to the real world."

Why? Why do all parents say this? I don't understand this phrase at all. Do I live in an imaginary world where the sky is made of honey and snow is cotton candy? Last time I checked I live in a world that has been at war for most of my life. I live in a world where there is crime based on race and religion, a world where a woman is degraded based on what she does or doesn't wear, a world where veterans of war starve because they don't receive the necessary support after coming home, a world that is continually getting warmer but no one believes it. The world I live in is a dark place that is struggling to hold itself together. So no, I don't live in an imaginary world but for some reason parents continue to say this, so I'm going to ask all parents for a favor; please stop saying this.

By saying this phrase you are degrading the work that I have done. By saying this phrase you are effectively saying that all the work that I have accomplished in my life before establishing a career means nothing. That all of my determination and struggle has been for nothing. My life, essentially, hasn't existed because, after all, I haven't been in the "real" world.

But let me tell you something parents, my world has been more real than anything I could have possibly imagined. I have spent 16 years in school constantly learning and progressing. I have studied the ancient philosophers of Greece and Rome. I have studied history from all time periods. I have been to worlds that only exist in pages of a book yet I suffered with the people in those pages. I have felt the warmth and comfort of being in love for the first time and felt it's crippling sting when it fell apart. I have discovered self-loathing and the pain of wanting to die. I have felt hope when it seemed like the world was going to fall apart at my feet, but you don't see these things do you? All you see is a child who hasn't even discovered it's feet. Just because I haven't owned a house, or paid a mortgage, or figured out taxes yet doesn't mean that my life is anything less than yours, it just means that I am at a different stage of my life that at one time, long ago, you where at too. So go ahead and say "welcome to adulthood" or "welcome to the working world" because those phrases have a meaning behind them. Just stop saying "welcome to the real world" because my life means something and no one can say it doesn't.