I’m just pretending at this adult thing. You think when you’re younger that you become an adult and maybe there is some kind of transformation. One day you’ll wake up, just know that you are now an adult, and you will know how to handle the world in such a way that every little thing will work out. It’s what it looks like when you observe your parents. They have everything together. They know how to pay bills, how to get places without a map or GPS, how to balance a check book, how to interact intelligently on the phone with professionals, how to pay taxes, and the list goes on. AKA your parents make being an adult look like it’s a breeze. It’s why we all want to grow up so quickly to become one just like them.
It looks pretty on the outside. You dream and imagine what you’ll be like as an adult. You cook up your life with details like your career, where you’ll live, and all those fun specifics. Once you have it all figured out you start to wonder when that pivotal moment will occur that transforms you into the adult you’ve been dreaming about for ages. Well, breaking news: there is no pivotal moment. No one comes and presents you with some kind of certificate saying you’ve made it and passed the obstacles which qualify you to be an adult. For those of us who have graduated high school and begun our college careers, it is starting to dawn on us that this is not at all what we expected nor exactly what we signed up for.
All of this isn’t to say that growing up has been awful or anything. But remember how we played make-believe or played house as children? Well that’s what my experience of being an adult has summed up to. I don’t really know what is going on half the time. I don’t know how to do all of the things that my parents have been doing. I’m now classified as an adult, but I’m really just an oversized child with a really good disguise.
It’s all a learning process. The further I get from my teenage years the more I’m having to cope with. I have bills and responsibilities that I never had before. Then I have to figure out how to get around it all with some semblance of professionalism and decorum. I stumble and fall sometimes, but I don’t give up. I continue to put myself out there to fall again. The circus of life is thankfully forgiving.
I am grateful that I have my parents who are willing to guide me and take my calls when I need advice. We should all really take a moment to thank them for convincing us that their years of experience was all natural talent. They gave us the false hope that we could do anything. Can we do anything? Not exactly. I still can’t fly or make things move with the sheer force of my mind, but that’s another story. Our parents did help us believe and still root us on from the sidelines as we venture further into the unknown territory of adulthood. Or maybe they are cheering and laughing from their rocking chairs on their porch of experience, you decide. Take advantage of the advice they have. We may not always agree, but it's good advice.
Now it’s time to go put on our disguises and take on another day.
