We all grow up with ideas and notions in our heads about what life is supposed to be like. Your friends, family, school, work, and love life, we tend to have notions about how it is all going to work out for us. It only takes about 2 seconds of thinking like that before reality smacks you upside the head.

Trying to make friends. I understand Im not everyone's cup of tea, but it hurts being the outcast sometimes. I keep being friendly though. -nexaci7605

Music / The Radio. Every time i turn on the radio and listen to what’s popular. Beyond baffled at how vapid it all is. -SwordBreakers925

The ending of Game of thrones yeah still mad years of my life I can't get back. -Chemicalburnout

House prices. really should have been buying up real estate in grade school lol. -astickyworm1

Realizing in my 20s that "older" people were just as immature and dishonorable as kids, only permanently so. Very scary moment. You grow up looking up to those people, and when the pedestal you put them on falls, you are looking down on them, still powerless to change the world. -litetravelr

I was at this company for 10 years and some of my best work was in the call center. As in, I may have been the best they've ever had (so they told me). So I got promoted to sales and laid off after 4 years.Looking to make a return, I applied to the call center. People were acting like it would be the biggest return since Jesus. I was ready to go and...got a generic letter saying I wasn't qualified. -the68guns

Disneyland I went there like 23 years ago. The castle… I was so excited to explore a freakin castle and I ran up to it and it was plywood cut out with a crappy gift shop… I’ll never trust again. (Yea I’m aware it is now an actual castle / hotel) -100percentnotgood

I've been posting about this lately, my former best friend and neighbor. He's a single dad of two special needs kids. I did a lot to help him out much of last year. Late last fall he either broke into my house (or had someone else do it for him) and stole quite a bit of money from me. When I confronted him about this he physically attacked me.After everything I did for him it hurts so bad someone could simply turn on you. The beatdown he gave me didn't make me cry, I took it, but later on when I realized our friendship was a sham and he was only using me I completely broke down. -llcucf80

The American healthcare system. particularly elder care and mental health. -intuitionbaby

Childhood. People kept telling me it was the best time of my life and that adulthood was a misery of obligations and responsibilities.Well, my experience of being an adult and able to have much more control over my own life, who I associate with, and what I do with my time is a welcome exchange for my responsibility-free life where I had comparatively little agency. -zazzlekdazzle

My mother. Over and over. -mizzlu78

Myself. The way my life has gone. The uncaring nature of my narcissistic family members make my life even tougher than it already is. Just life in general. -Hamlindigo_Blue

The church. Not god, the church. -NoPlaceForTheDead

My siblings. Never expected them to turn on me and then try to prevent me from getting my share of the inheritance. -California_Sun1112

My Wife. She decided that she no longer wanted to be married, not necessarily to me, just at all. She told me this 3 weeks after she left without an explanation at the time. We had just bought a house… -Thignk21

The American government, hands down. -NoMournersNoFunerals

Relatives. The people that are supposed to love you and back you up through thick and thin. I've had friends for less than a year that are more family than my relatives. -Vospire34

Call me a (former) optimist but there was a time when for some reason I thought the Bezos’s and Zuckerberg’s of the world were going to use their brains and wealth to do good things for the world. Instead, they are contributing to its demise. -Devilsmile7

College. 5 years of college education with nothing to show for it but a fat debt that gets extended every year like a despair carrot dangling in your face all the time. But worse than that is all the waste of resources, potential, and life due to the greed of a powerful few. -wooly_torch

Politicians and Elected officials. The elected officials. I was in 4th grade during Columbine and in college during Sandy Hook. I remember the panic over the ozone layer and now watching global warming get denounced. I remember the banning of cigarette ads and cartoon mascots and now we have candy-flavored vapes. Watching the people in power destroy the lives of the average citizen when they have all the evidence to KNOW better has been heartbreaking. -Callmebynotmyname

Love. I almost always never get the love I give. Sometimes it's fine, but when it becomes routine life just gets depressing. Still doesn't stop me from being kind, you never know what the other person is going through. -Hot_Wine_2004