"The real world," from someone who's living in it, is the world where your parents aren't there to help you with everything. This means your job, your bills, your day-to-day life, everything. "The real world" refers to the time after you graduate from high school and/or college, and have to get a full-time job and pay for your own bills. Someone living at home but who has a full-time job, in my opinion, wouldn't be living in "the real world" yet.
Source(s):
22 and living in "the real world."

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Lets dissect the two first of all. Real and World. We all know what the world is, assuming its "our" world, so lets define that one first and agree. The world is the earth, the physical place we physically are. The world is our enviornment, the place we exist and interact. Being real is the act of being true, explainable, physical. Real is the definition of how things are, how they are perceived by an individual. SSSSOOoooooooo, "The Real World", in my opinion, is a physical place that you or I currently exist in, regardless of enviornment and occurances. The Real World is just a place we are. Boring, huh? Well lets shake it up a bit! NOW- The Real World is a place we all come into contact with at sometime in our life where reality, shortcomings, misdirection, and straight up getting no-vasaline'd slaps us in the face and we have to come to the realization its not all about me anymore! There's a big Real World out there and i'm not the only one in it!
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"The real world" is shorthand for the realization that you are not the center of creation. That although your parents treated you like everything revolves around you for the first X years of your life, ultimately you come to realize that for the overwhelming majority of people, and for the entirety of non-sentient creation, whether you prosper or wither, whether you even live or die is of little moment.

Thus, in "the real world" you can only count on your self, and to greater or lesser extent your family and friends to care about how well you do. You can count almost exclusively on yourself, and possibly your partner, to do the things needed to keep you alive, healthy, and happy.

While the US Declaration of Independence promises you (if you are a US citizen living in the US at least) "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" all that means is that the government won't try to kill you (unless you count putting you in harms way as a member of the armed forces, or executing you after you're convicted of a serious felony), take away your right to be free (again, unless you count the lack of freedom inherent in being under someone else's command in the armed forces, or you're convicted of even not so serious felonies), or take away your right to try and make yourself happy, unless it's at someone else's expense.

Nowhere does that mean the government promises to feed you, or clothe you, or put a roof over your head, or provide you with a job that can support you and your family. All that, in "the real world" is your responsibility.

A cute poster I saw a while back was meant (in jest) for parents to give their teens. It said "Sick and tired of being told what to do? Do something about it! Move out, get a job, now, while you still know everything."
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The "big girl" or "big boy" world, in which you live on your own, keep a job and pay your own expenses. When you live in the real world, you take care of business on your own, and you understand just how much a dollar is worth, because you only have so many of them left to spend after your bills are paid.

I often tell my brother "I can't wait till you experience the real world for yourself. Then you'll understand what it's like for the rest of us" Because he doesn't understand why I can't answer the phone when he calls me and I'm at work, assisting customers. And because he charges up anything he feels like owning, and my mom has to pick up the tab for whatever he can't pay off.

The real world is when you do it all on your own.
Source(s):
My own experience

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The real world? The one in which I ain't!
Source(s):
me

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The "Real World" for me is the place where one experience pain, loss, happiness, hope, and faith in God. I can say I am living in a real world right now in our country, the Philippines.It is where the people struggle to survive and are experiencing natural catastrophes at the moment

We have been visited by lots of typhoons in the past few months. Some were not yet able to fix their flooded house and yet another typhoon is threatening us again. But through adversities we have learned to embrace our humanity and many extend their helping hand in cash or in kind just to alleviate the suffering of others. And when you look at the TV, you can see people on top of roofs, their house flooded waving for some help and food.

And in the evacuation center you can see many people, they are tired, desperate because they have lost their houses to the flood but you will wonder why they can still manage to smile and shake hands of those American soldiers who volunteered to give them aid. You can see hope in their smile and I guess the people in the Philippines are survivors. We persist.

Because we have faith in God almighty that no matter what He won't forsake us. That through these experiences He will give us the strength to carry on. And you can find us in different corners of the world. The caregivers in UK, the Filipino nurses in the US, and other workers that you will find in the Middle East are mostly Filipinos.

We live in a real world where we struggle to survive and seek work in a different country because we want better future for our family. We endure hardships of being away from our loved ones to give them the best that we can. That is the real world for me.
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