Learning how to adult

For people who are in that post-college-what-do-I-do-with-my-life-20s stage of life and active on social media like Tumblr, there's a concept that has been adopted called "learning how to adult". The phrase encompasses those aspects of taking care of yourself that often seem scary. This can include making medical appointments, keeping a living space clean, and finding a job with the added fun of resumes and cover letters. I think one thing that makes some of these tasks scary is that we feel unprepared for this level of responsibility. People pose the question of "Who let me be in charge of an office/classroom/another person when I can't even (insert task on a smaller scale, like turn off headlights when getting out of a car)?" There are some real-world skills that I think everything could benefit from while they are still living with their parents, like money management, and basic auto care.

I do think I've been able "to adult" in some ways. This was true to an extent during college, but once I graduated, I felt like I really had my choices in my hands. It was a scary feeling, but I did feel supported by my family and those around me. It was nice to not feel like someone was pulling me along with my own life. Of course, this comes at the price of having to muster up that motivation to do things on your own.

This came to mind today because my afternoon included popping out of work a little early to get to the DMV with just enough time to get a Wisconsin license processed before some light shopping and then dinner. It was weird to realize that it was already 7pm by the time I was eating. Many other days, I would have just plopped into the apartment after work and played games or watched YouTube until the same point in the evening. So it felt like to be more productive, even if the time seemed to slip away equally swiftly.

It's also possible that part of this feeling has indirectly come from interviewing people to be Hall Directors next year. Some of the candidates seem quite young, which makes me think "This is my 6th year of being a full-time professional. I need to be a driving force rather than a reactionary one." That's one of the reasons why I'm set on making grad school work and trying to do more professional development.

So yeah, I know it's a process and many people say that they never truly feel like they have it all together, but it's nice to know that I'm making headway to "fully adulting" compared to even a year ago.

Today is Celebrate Exchange Day, which seems to be connected with an organization that's all about service. So that's cool. See what you can do to give back to your community, folks.

DFTBA