January Sixth

Cooking for myself. Fixing a leaky washer. Vacuuming out the sand in my car. Writing a rent check. Those are all things college me would have never done, but post college me did all those things today. Maybe I am an adult after all.

My personal preference would be to eat out, pay other people to do the things I’m too lazy to do myself, and charge it on the credit card and worry about paying it later. But those preferences aren’t always reasonable- or cost efficient. So, there are days when I have to choose cheap, doing it myself, and using up my own free time. It’s not always fun and it’s not always easy- vacuuming the sand out of my car took a full hour and I didn’t even do the trunk- but I think those are the choices an adult has to make.

I am far from considering myself to be an adult, but everyday something new presents itself that I have to solve. I can’t always call my mom and dad and have them come rescue me. I can call and ask their advice or their opinion, but ultimately, I make the decisions. I decide whether to take my car in to get the squeaky sound checked or push it a few more weeks and hope it goes away. I decide whether to do my laundry and actually put it away or just continue piling it up on my chair for the next few weeks. And sometimes I make the ‘adult’ decision and go in that direction. Then other times I make the decision that teenage me would probably make. Either way, I’d like to think that I’m growing. I’d like to believe that I’m spending my time and energy moving forward not back.

So, here’s to being maybe an adult. To having to sacrifice fun every now and then in order to get the job done. Eventually my suitcase will get unpacked and my pile of clothes will be cleared from my ottoman. But here’s also to being maybe an adult and having fun. Getting to have a salary and decide what to do with the leftover money once I’ve paid all my bills. It can be the best of both worlds if you let it be.