I'm a 24 year old bum who was just introduced to D&D after years of avoiding it. It's been a very steep learning curve, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. I'm new enough at this that I still feel very, very silly RPing my characters. The hardest lesson that I'm having to learn is that D&D isn't like other games: it's a game that occurs in a living, breathing world, and failing to treat it as such usually ends with my character lying in a pool of their own blood, getting thrown in prison, etc.
I am still definitely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of TIME that D&D demands, especially for a newbie like me. It's not just a game, it's a lifestyle!