With only one more month left in Upstate New York, I have been progressively approaching the day where adulthood overtakes my current life. In between stressing about essays and calculating how many hours of sleep I'll get if I fall asleep right away, the sudden realization of my imminent adulthood is scary. How do you know you are ready to adult? And, how do you know you are successfully adulting?
It's not like living alone up until now hasn't taught me anything. I've learned that I am not afraid of moving away. However, I feel I can live a comfortable life on campus that keeps me guarded against being taken over by adulthood. I have a warm meal available for me whenever I'm hungry and I can rely on walking as my main transportation option. I don't have to think about grocery shopping, paying my bills and so forth. Although I will be living in a residence once I move into the city, reality slowly creeps in. There are things to keep in mind such as grocery shopping, cooking for myself, deciphering public transportation (because walking might not be the best way to reach the office on time), going to class afterwards, paying the bills, fulfilling my assignments, and so much more I haven't realized I will have to do yet.
However, nothing's made adulthood realer for me than writing a resume and a cover letter. How do people manage to write these beautiful, precise and almost perfect resumes that land them the job they expected? For the last two weeks, I stared at these single paged documents where I needed to color myself as the ideal candidate for the job. The hardest one to write was the cover letter. If it would have been up to me, I would have typed a constant string of "I need this experience in your company/foundation to grow as a professional. Please hire me!" in different fonts. And, unsurprisingly, I did spend more time playing with the different fonts available than actually writing.
Today, after two weeks of writing and editing, I still don't know if my resume makes me look like the strongest candidate possible. What I do know is I look like a bit of a nerd. However, I want to acknowledge some of the skills that are irrelevant for my resume and maybe my life, but that I happen to have:
-I am good at writing satirical remarks about myself.
-Once I spot a problem in my life, no matter how insignificant it might be, I have the sudden, anxious urge to fix it right away.
-I can assign a theme song to certain moments of my life.
-I can trip and fall precisely whenever I need to look completely serious.
-I can draw doodles anywhere.
-I can stay awake as long as it takes to finish reading a book I enjoy.
This article is a special shout out to you, dear adulthood. I might not be ready to be overwhelmed by you, but we'll end up getting acquainted sooner rather than later.