Sunday 9 January 2011

What is it to be an adult?

Why would anyone ever want to be an adult?
Why would anyone want to grow up?

As a teen, i was desperate to go out, get independence, drink alcohol and paarrrtay in nightclubs, but I'd always been terrified of growing old or becoming an adult. This was mainly because all the adults in my life were so miserable with their lives and painfully boring.


Now, i look in my life and see what i have created, what i do on a daily basis and i look at my priorities - and i'm definitely an adult. There's no getting away from it! Adulthood crept up on me at some point. Yet, i'm still highly immature, I am not miserable and do not believe i'm painfully boring (although others may argue against this!)

Then, i wondered - what is it to be an adult? Here's what i came up with:

1. Realizing that you're not the only person in the world and we must all try and get along
When you truly realize that the most important people in your life are around you, rather than you - i'm sure that you level-up in some mass cosmic event. You are a force of good for anyone who interacts with you. It's about what you can give on a daily basis - not what you can extract from others.

2. Knowing what you need to do
Being able to stare truth in the face and realize what you need to do. Knowing when you need to apologize to someone, not ignoring it when you need to go see the doctor, knowing when you need insurance, need to shut up or when you need to break off a relationship because it's killing you. As an adult - you can weigh the situation up, and, although there may be choices - you eventually have a good grasp of what you need to do.

3. The number of ways you can trick yourself into doing something
To get up in the morning, i place my alarm out of reach with the most annoying tone i could find. In order to get a project finished on time - i tell everyone of my deadline, this is so I'll actually pay attention to the deadline rather than just go 'meh' and skip it. I keep the book i need to read next to my laptop, so if (when) i start surfing aimlessly on the net - i'll feel guilty and read some of my book. I invite friends over on a certain day, which forces me to get my house cleaned by this day.

On many levels - i am still a petulant child. I will continue to be a petulant child - because, let's be honest - it's kinda fun. Being a child also enables me to show up for life every morning with this zesty energy! But I've realized that i'm not number one in life, i have a good head for what needs to be done and i have developed a million ways to trick myself into doing these things. To me, this - is adulthood.