Being an adult is a funny thing. You turn 18 & you automatically become one. No rhyme. No reason — well, aside from making it 18 years. I’ve said it once & I’ll say it again:
I think there needs to be a test or some form of a screening process to pass the threshold.
But I digress…
So, since some bozo made that rule up eons ago, whether I deserve to be or not, here I am — an adult. Now, here’s a list of why adulthood is not the snore-fest that someone told me it was. Turns out whoever said that just wasn’t milking it hard enough:
1. I can have cookies for dinner & no one can stop me.
- This is a hard number one.
2. Friends are super easy to make. I think that goes for any phase of life, but I love that it doesn’t stop when you get older. You can still just walk up to whomever you want, say whatever you want, & it’ll go wherever it does. It’s like the world is my playground, except when I meet people nowadays, I’m usually not fresh off the monkey bars.
3. Wisdom & knowledge. You gain more of both everywhere you go; so long as you’re open to them. And the coolest part is that the older you get, the more places you go, the more people you meet; the more you get share it with others.
4. Trampoline parks. Bowling alleys. Dance clubs. Laser tag. Rock climbing. They all still exist. Only now, I have my own money & car to partake to my heart’s desire.
5. Friendships. I already mentioned them. But I love that they can take on any form. I can be true friends with a 67 year-old life coach that I see every 2 years just as much as I can a 51 year-old, recent empty nester that I hang with every time I go back to NC just as much as I can a 21 year-old barber who I call every other day. Good people are good people. And when a good person comes into my life, I keep them in whatever form I can. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
6. I only have myself to answer to. This is a double edged sword. I’m my own boss & caretaker. It’s a tiring job trying to keep up with myself. I’m a fast-paced, slow-moving, actively passive, consistently inconsistent, thoughtfully thoughtless, bulldozer of a woman. That’s a daunting cocktail of adjectives. Yet it mixes well & somehow they all compliment each other. Not to everyone, but to me at least. It’s a special thing to learn more about myself. It takes time, much failure, & a whole lot of patience. I hit some form of a wall at least once a day where I ask myself, “hey Delaney… just — why?” Whether that’s for me not getting more than 5 hours of sleep for the 6th day in a row; choosing to bake 2 batches of cookies after working a 12 hour day right before I go out to line dance with friends; getting an unexplainable, overwhelming wave of sadness out of nowhere; or choosing not to wear a coat in 10 degree weather — I ask “why?” A lot of the time I don’t have an answer. Sometimes I do. And other times it slowly unravels over the course of a few weeks.
7. You get to be in on all of the adult secrets. Here are a couple of my favorites:
- You can do whatever you want. You just have to own it & accept the world’s consequences.
- Ex: I’ve lived in my current apartment for 6 months now & I still have not taken the initiative of getting chairs for my kitchen table. I couldn’t possibly care less, but I’m constantly ready to accept the bullying that’ll come every time I have someone over for dinner.
- Ex: You can get a dog. You’ll have to clean up its pee when potty training, but if the bedtime snuggles are worth it, then by all means, don’t let anything stop you.
- Ex: You want to quit your job & take a sabbatical in the forest?Go for it. Your family will probably have something to say about it & rent will still be due when you get back. But do your thing. You’ll figure it out.
- No one actually knows what they’re doing & everyone’s confused in at least some capacity. This might be my favorite secret of them all. And, do you know what? It’s not really a secret. Some adults will straight-up admit how clueless they are to you, but others will try to hide it. Those are my the best — the ones that “have their stuff together”. Listen, I’m a gullible gal, so most times I believe them. But just as soon as they think they have me fooled, they do something like trip in a crosswalk, use more than one napkin at dinner, stutter on a word, let out an insecurity, or have that gross white stuff in the corners of their mouth while they’re talking, & suddenly? We’re all on our rookie behavior again.
8. Hot Take: folding laundry is a great way to pass time. It slows life down & turns into a brainless jam session.
9. Talking like an adult? It’s for the birds. Made up. You can say things in whatever way makes sense to you. Like the word “extrapolate”? Use it 5 times right after sitting down on a first date. I dare you. “Looking forward to it”? You can go your entire life not typing that out at a corporate job & the sun will still set, I promise. Have a voicemail greeting that your boss told you to make sound more professional? Maybe you should listen, but also, keep it if it feels like you (totally hypothetical…).
10. Time. You can choose how to give it. Familially, professionally, socially, emotionally, charitably, religiously, economically, let’s-get-some-food-ly. And the best part is, there’s no wrong way to do it. You’re never wasting your time so long as you appreciate where you are, what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, & who you’re doing it with to some degree.
Moral of the story is this:
Adulthood comes with many responsibilities — some set in stone, some we put in place for ourselves, and some forced upon us by the world. It’s hard; but that’s life. None of us get to escape that fact.
But adulthood also comes with many upsides. Whether that’s eating cookies, folding laundry, or becoming wiser, theres a common thread through my scatter-brained, bullet pointed privileges…
You have the freedom to make whatever you want out of this life. So do it your way & do it with gusto.
Life will continue to do as it does. That we can’t change. Now, all that’s left is for us to look down at what cards we’ve been dealt, look up & smile at the people sitting around the table, & play on accordingly.