Turning 18-years-old does not mean you’re an adult. Sure you can vote and legally you don’t need your parent’s permission to do things anymore, but you still find yourself relying on said parents for a lot of things. The truth is becoming an adult is a process that lead to complete personal and financial independence. So how can you tell when you’re heading in that direction? Well, there are more than a few signs:

1. You become increasingly more frugal.

You often find yourself asking whether you truly need this? Honestly, it’s a pain. All you want is to buy this new video game, a new outfit, or a name brand makeup pallet but instead you standing there thinking about how that money could be used for groceries or rent.

2. You find yourself making the responsible choices all the time.

Your work friends invite you to go to the bars for goth night or karaoke but you have an 8:00 a.m. the next morning. So instead of a night out with your friends, you go home and make a cup of chamomile and go to bed.

3. Once again, you’re responsibly choosing a night in.

You spend many of your Friday and Saturday nights staying home and working on papers and studying for tests. Say goodbye to your weekends of relaxing and going out with your friends, you have work to do.

4. Speaking of work, you start taking more shifts on your off days.

While having a day off to do whatever you like is nice, earning that extra bit of cash seems a bit more important than catching up on your favorite shows. It brings a smile to my face to see my paycheck has a little more on it than it usually would.

5. However, a considerate amount of that paycheck goes to your savings.

Half of my paycheck always seems to make its way into my savings account. I’m always worried that something is going to happen (flat tire, broken laptop, run out of coffee, etc…), it always makes me feel better to know I have that money just in case.

6. You have to plan when you’re going to clean your apartment.

Between classes, work, and other obligations I am always looking at my planner trying to figure out when I am going to have time to clean my apartment. It’s a never ending battle between cleanliness and our lack of motivation.

7. You know how to cook without a microwave.

I’m apparently an anomaly who was taught to cook by her dad when she was a kid. Apparently, a lot of college-age people don’t know much more than how to make spaghetti. Who knew? So, the ability to cook chicken, burgers, lasagna, and more is a major accomplishment. The next goal should be to not have to call home for the recipe or questions regarding how you know it’s done.

8. You do your own laundry.

Personally I’ve done my own laundry since I was eight, so this doesn’t really make me feel more like an adult. But upon arriving at college and having roughly 20 people knock on my door the first three weeks asking how to wash their clothes, I figured doing your own laundry was a sign of adulthood for others. I’ll never forget the day I walked into the laundry room in Kreischer to find a boy who thought that separating his clothes meant shorts go in one load, jeans another, and that short sleeves and long sleeves needed separated as well. The look on his face when I told it mean separating colors from whites was priceless.

9. Coffee never tasted so good.

Sure you’ve had it before, but when you get up in the morning and you think about everything you have to accomplish that coffee tastes just a little better; even to a coffee addict like myself.

So, congrats! If you notice yourself doing even one of these things, you are in the process of becoming an actual adult no matter your age. So let the tears flow and kiss the all the fun times of childhood and adolescents goodbye because the adulting is about to begin.