I'm officially an adult.
It certainly didn't happen overnight. However, as more and more time has passed I've come to the undeniable truth that yes, I have in fact, reached adulthood.
It was bound to happen eventually. I tried to delay it as long as I could. I still listen to the same music I listened to as a teenager including artists like Britney Spears, N*Sync, Enrique Iglesias, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I still watch lowbrow comedy shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Archer. The list of movies I have watched the previous three Saturdays is as follows: Finding Nemo, Beerfest, and Office Space. My latest Facebook post showcased Eddie Murphy's ridiculously awesome 80s music video for "Party All The Time" and I am personally giddy for the season premier of "Game of Thrones" in just under 24 hours.
And yet, try as I could to delay it, I now know that becoming an adult was inevitable.
As a graduating college senior eight years ago, I remember our commencement speaker, David Brooks, talking about the fact that we weren't entering the real world; we had actually been there the last four years. I thought about this and realized Brooks was right. I mean, for four years I had been in charge of my own physical well-being. I got up all by myself and got myself to and from class. I did all the assignments by the due date and took all the exams when scheduled. I spent a semester in Spain all by myself and spent a semester as a student-teacher at a local area high school. I was able to clothe and feed myself, not (totally) destroy my liver, stay disease free, and make livelong friends for four years on a college campus where I knew nobody when I first started out.
However, when I look back on my college self, I realized I wasn't an adult quite yet.
Being an adult requires varying levels of responsibility. As a college student, I had some of these. However, now that I am in my eighth year in the workforce I now see that much more was needed in my metamorphosis into adulthood. Bills have to be paid on a monthly basis including rent, credit card, cell phone, gas & electric, renter's insurance, car insurance, and health insurance. Yearly responsibilities include paying taxes and registering my automobile. In addition to these new responsibilities, the ones I faced in college still hold true as well: I still have to feed, clothe, and bathe myself, I have to successfully wake up on time, I have to stay healthy and exercise, and I have to perform at my job while finding creative outlets for myself outside of my job to stay sane as well.
But most of all, I need to be my own person to be a true adult.
This last realization struck home about three weeks ago at a work retreat at Pismo Beach, just north of San Luis Obispo in California's central coast. It was a chance for members of the organization to get together and discuss our successes so far this year and preview our upcoming summer campaigns. As has been the tradition, those with families and young children stayed together while the staff without significant others stayed in a separate unit, one which ended up resembling a spring break house with 20 people staying together in a five-bedroom home.
To be honest, I was not the oldest person in the home. However, I definitely felt removed from the younger generation of activists, many of whom were one to two years out of college. I wasn't a square my any means; I definitely enjoyed a six-pack on Friday evening of Sam Adams and I also enjoyed some margaritas and mimosas that were offered to be by my younger counterparts throughout the weekend. Yet, when push came to shove on Saturday evening and several of my counterparts set up a dance party in our garage at midnight, there was only one thing on my mind:
What time I needed to get up the next day to make the five-hour drive back to Sacramento.
And that's when I began to realize I had reached adulthood: The responsibility factor. The fact that my priorities are different than those six, seven years my younger. When I go out with friends or to a bar, it's only for a couple drinks. When I have free time, necessities rather than extravagances come first: Running to the bank, buying groceries, doing laundry, or getting gas now become my top weekend priorities. When those necessities are completed, then, and only then do I focus on my hobbies: Working out, hiking, biking, blogging, and reading among others. It is in those priorities that I have finally realized that I am now an adult.
Now, to be fair there are multiple levels of "adultness" to be had. I don't have a significant other, I don't own a home, I don't have a pet, and I don't have children of my own. But I have come to realize that I've reached a certain point in my life and that's perfectly okay: It's the natural progression of one's professional career. Priorities change. For me, my most important priority is doing a good job in my new line of work. After that, it's making sure that my life is in order through my own health and finances. Then, last but certainly not least, comes the social aspect: Being with friends and family, staying in touch with those who aren't in my immediate vicinity, and doing things that I have found make me personally happy.
There are worse things in life than becoming an adult.
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