20 People Talk About How They Were Surprisingly Disappointed When They Finally Achieved Their Dreams

Walt Disney once said that “If you can dream it, you can do it”, but sometimes what we don’t realise is that what we thought we wanted is not actually all so great when we finally do get it. 

#1 Being the boss of people. Boss is a title, but being an effective leader of people is an emotionally draining, often thankless roller coaster.

Image source: DingbatDarrel, Andrea Piacquadio

#2 Having a child.

Image source: Ambitious-Mention303, Daiga Ellaby

#3 I changed my name. When the name change was accepted and I received the letter with my new name on it I freaked out and changed it back the same day.

Image source: sour-d, Alexander Suhorucov

#4 Growing up.

Image source: fat_boyz, Dimitar Kazakov

#5 Med school. I was sooo excited to observe a surgery. I fainted…

Image source: dandylioness13, National Cancer Institute

#6 Traveling for work. You spend a lot of time in hotels and rarely get the opportunity to see anything besides that due to flight schedules. And being hungover on an airplane is an awful experience.

Image source: trevlawson, Victor Freitas

#7 I couldn’t wait to “pull g’s” in an airplane. Then I did. It sucked.

Image source: papafrog, Pixabay

#8

Image source: Lucianus48, Briana Tozour

I heard this story from a friend, and have no reason to believe it’s fake, but I never met any of the people involved.

There’s a couple, the husband really wanted a 3some their entire marriage. The wife always refused, at least partially because they had a kid, and she didn’t want their sexcapades to affect the child in any way.

Fast forward 20 years or so, the kids are all out of the house, and the husband keeps bringing it up (not sure he ever stopped, really). The wife just so happened to have a coworker that she was becoming really good friends with, who she also found very attractive, and so one day (prior to the husband’s birthday), the wife asked her coworker if she would be down to join her and her husband. The coworker said yes.

Husband’s birthday, the wife surprises him with the 3some. Afterwards, the husband’s reaction was “well that wasn’t really the mind-blowing experience I expected it to be. Oh well, my wife is awesome for doing that for me.”

Now, I might be missing a few details here, but the wife realized she enjoyed being with the other woman far more than she enjoyed being with her husband. She ended up leaving her husband and is now in a committed relationship with the coworker.

#9

Image source: ukrainianironbelly92

I grew up watching romance movies and reading romance novels and always dreamed of a guy coming and sweeping me off my feet and then having hot sex with me.

When I actually got into my first relationship with a guy, I realized I was gay.

#10

Image source: TripleAWingingIt, Filip Andrejevic

Join the military. 1/10 would not recommend it. The only good that came out of it was being able to say I traveled and lived in a foreign country and I could have done that on my own. Its the most toxic workplace on Earth and for women, it’s a real s**t show of sexual predators, misogyny and abuse by ignorant, immature young men who have -0- respect for women as a whole who are given far too much responsibility and power long before they have the brains or wisdom to use it.

#11

Image source: reditballoon

I once had a chat with an Uber driver in LA about her dream and how it didn’t turn out as she expected.

Born and raised in Moldova, she grew up dreaming of being a politician so she could one day make a positive impact on her country. She studied hard and made it into a nice university, but once the first set of finals came, the teacher faced the class and said, “To those who studied, good job. To those who didn’t, a C is $300, a B is $400, and an A in the class is $500.”

At that point she realized her country was corrupt beyond what she could ever hope to fix in her lifetime and immediately dropped out.

A few years later she won a lottery to obtain a visa to move to the US. She took her mom and brother, who is now able to follow his own dream of producing Maldovan music at a professional level and is becoming increasingly popular in their homeland and surrounding countries.

#12

Image source: MAJORMETAL84, Oleksandr Pidvalnyi

I went into a Catholic seminary after high school joining a Catholic religious order. The ensuing years totally deconstructed the myth and mystique of the religion as I saw how many of the priest were complete frauds in their own character.

After the Church, I joined the Police Department hoping again to serve people in need. I’ve never seen so much stupid concentrated in one organization. I would rather live as a hermit than spend another day with a bunch of lazy, lying, conniving asshats who barely made it out of high school.

Truly disturbing in both institutions was the level in which “rank” entitled you to set alternate reality.

F**k both of them.

#13

Image source: DreyfusBlue, Dose Media

All my life I wanted to make cartoons.

I fought with tooth and nail to reach the top.

Then I interned for an old studio in Burbank specializing in cartoons about a *certain yellow family.*

Then, after college, I became a mechanic and never looked back.

#14

Image source: Turbulent_Film_3174, fauxels

Teaching.

And god no not because of the kids, they were hilarious amazing and loved to learn.

I f*****g couldn’t stand the other teachers and staff members superiority complexes F*****G STOP BEING SO ANGRY & CONTROLLING TOWARDS GOD DAMN 8 YEAR OLDS WHO HAVE TO BE HERE

#15

Image source: nico87ca, Ketut Subiyanto

Moving to another country. I loved the romantic idea of moving to a new place and finding out about the culture.

Turns out it’s expensive, it’s complicated and it’s tiring as f**k.

Only silver lining is that I’ll have a few good stories to tell… To no one since I basically lost all my friends.

#16

 

Image source: Competitive-Ad-9662, Karsten Winegeart

Being a veterinarian. I never became a vet, but one of my first jobs in high school, having wanted to be a vet my whole life, was in a vet clinic. I was ecstatic. Vet clinics are depressing AF. Dogs and cats hit my cars coming in to the clinic in horrendous pain. It always smells like s**t from fecal floats (checking for worms), pets that got put down but could have been saved if only their owners could have afforded it. 2 freezers in basement- one for dead dogs, and one for dead cats. They get hauled to the basement freezer in trash bags in case they release waste after they die. I couldn’t take after only a few months and left.

#17

Image source: Ok_Advance6558

Being a cop. I quit after 6 months.

Typical story if a kid growing up in a sh*thole that had a cop “big brother”. He made me feel better about myself and gave me courage/confidence etc so I always grew up wanting to make the world a better place and help out the kids growing up like I did. When I got in I realized that my department cared more about the letter of the law and less about the spirit of the law. When I would take an opportunity to teach someone why they were doing bad instead of punishing them, I got punished. I put too many people in cuffs that had called me for help (sending the image of if you call for help your going to jail) than I care to admit and I just couldn’t do it anymore. I’m sure there are better departments out there but this killed it for me.

#18

Touching boobs. Which male, straight teen doesn’t wanna touch boobs? Obviously I wanted to do so, and the desire made me create high expectations. When I did it ended up being a disappointment. The girl was hot, but her personality was s**t. She grabbed my hands and put them in her tits. I didn’t feel anything, and for some reason it felt forced and unnatural. Then I realized two things:

1. Nice boobs don’t make up for s****y personality
2. Sexual experiences only feel good when you have feelings for the other person

Image source: the_basilisco

 

#19

Image source: Livingroxets, Pavel Danilyuk

Being an EMT

I had planned on it being my lifelong career since middle school. I loved the medical field and wanted to save lives but knew I wouldn’t have the stamina to get through medical school.

I got into training as soon as I graduated high school and I was top of my class in the educational sense, but as soon as I started doing ride-alongs everything just kind of fell apart on me.

I didn’t fit in well with the firefighters, which sounds stupid but I think I really needed that brotherhood if I was going to survive in that field. The real problem, however, was my empathy. I knew quickly that I would not be able to see people on their worst days everyday. I could deal with broken bones and blood, but I hadn’t prepared myself for the screams.

On my third ride-along I responded to a teenage su**ide, and that was it for me. I work for a museum now lol.

#20

Image source: ibiacmbyww

Living with my partner.

We were, and are, a perfect match. Even now we’ve gone our separate ways romantically, we’re still best friends. I’d take a bullet for that m**********r.

In my head it would be all baking cookies and filthy sex. While I was at work he’d do some of the household upkeep. Our friends could come over whenever to party.

In reality I was working a job that I hated so much it nearly killed me, and he was clinically depressed and trying to get his thesis over the line. The apartment was too small, and it STANK, even before we both stopped doing any cleaning. We were so miserable we just ate takeout every night and went to sleep without so much as a kiss. Partying isn’t really on the cards when you’re one iota away from hanging yourself.

If I couldn’t make it work with him, I figured it’s not for me. I was right. Been living alone for 6 years now, and I couldn’t imagine giving up the independence it gives me for anything or anyone.