WHY..??

For most of my life so far, I believe I've been living in a cage - in an ideal world. The real world is something else. It is not something where everything is perfect and everyone is happy and virtuous. In fact, it is anything but perfect. Me and most people that I know have had this privilege- of avoiding reality. A world where you are safe amidst your friends and family. We've always known that if we mess up, we have our parents to bail us out. If it's something you don't want to tell your parents, well, you've got your friends to turn to. But in the end, you are never accountable to yourself. There's always an excuse. And I've lived in that blissful existence for so many years. Even in school or college, you know that whatever you are learning is not going to work in industry or in life. The real world is going to be different. And that somehow leads to a kind of complacency, a detachment from what you are doing. As if it's not important, as if its not the real deal. And then, you become too smart for your own good. Suddenly, I start seeing things as they really are. How people really are (I don't mean it as a negative connotation) and how the world really is. And considering myself to be a intelligent human being, I accept the reality. I understand what I need to do and indeed to an extent I know what I want to do. The bubble has burst. I realize that every person has some responsibilities- personal and professional. And, you need to fulfill these irrespective of the fact that you hate going through most of them. After I understood that one fact, I assumed that I am done. So, its ok, I've been shielded from the world by the good civilized society so that I enter reality when I am strong enough and good enough to do well in it. One phase of life is over, and a new one begins. Now, I am expected to stand on my own feet - solve my own problems and in fact, help other people solve theirs. I realize that sometimes I'll make mistakes and so will others but I'll just have to live with that, there's nothing I can do about it. So, now my question is simply this, "Why am I afraid to just snap out of the ideal world and enter the real one?" Why can't I simply change my habits and outlook? Why can't I just accept that I am never going back to the idealism again? Why does a part of me want to go back to that carefree childhood? Why the hell would I prefer ignorance over knowledge?