Why Adulting Is The Best Thing On The Planet Earth
You know what my favorite part of being an adult is? Making my own decisions. That’s exactly why adulting is the best thing on the planet earth.
Holy hell. When you’re a kid, you can’t decide anything. That makes sense I suppose, you don’t know anything yet. But since becoming an adult, I guess that means turning 18 or moving out of the parent’s house, I’ve been ruthlessly making my own decisions. Possibly with zero support in most of my choices, often with pushback. Not just big decisions, even the small ones. Like I want to stay up really late on Tuesday night & eat a plate of cookies & watch a comedy on Netflix even though, yes I do have to wake up at 5am. Sure, I’ll be tired in the morning, but I’m a fucking adult & this decision is mine. OMG I love it. That freedom is everything!
Or picking out whatever groceries you want at the store, or buying the expensive bag of popcorn that’s exactly the same as the other bags but pink, just because you can. FREEDOM. Yes, I have 900 bags of chips in the cabinet & 2 veggies in the fridge.
OMG or you need to be outside for 7 hours because it’s a summer day & you’re 9 years old so you should be doing activities in the great outdoors… but as an adult? I can vegetate on my couch with blackout curtains while it’s 75 degrees & sunny outside without anyone advising me otherwise. With a BIG freaking smile on my face. Because I’M AN ADULT.
Come here, do this. Join the team, don’t stay out late, meet new people, get a job. Or, “what were you doing out so long?” As an adult, DOESN’T MATTER.
How about swear words? Or the monitoring of appropriate language & conversations? I remember my brother got a note sent home because he was explaining the middle finger to his classmates in elementary school, which in my opinion, makes him smart.
I see kids with their parents at the coffee shop being told to chill out, or walk by an elementary school nearby where a soccer team is practicing, or a little girl that just wants the Barbie at Target, or even kids around teachers or friends they haven’t learned are actually assholes. UGH. No. Thank. You.
Not to say my parents didn’t let me be free. They did. If I remember correctly, they didn’t really care too much about what I did… I was the problem. The teachers freaked me out, the rules, the consequences. The peers that I thought I had to be friends with. Or (literally) couldn’t drive away from. All that shit got in my young brain & made me scared. I followed the rules & made the decisions everyone wanted me to. I went to bed. I woke up on time. I was never late. I came home early. I behaved. I tried to make friends. All the things.
But as an adult, with no one checking on me to make sure I’m following the “rules” at home? Praise God. I’ve never even let a boss at work have that kind of power over me as an adult.
That’s the little shit, I’m talking the big decision making too. OooOooo even more GLORIOUS! When I adopted Bernice, and literally everyone advised me not to, even firmly saying: “DO NOT DO THAT KATIE”. I drove to the Humane Society & brought the puppy home. Some call it stubborn, I call it being an adult. Going to college out of state, moving in with Wafiq really freaking early, quitting jobs, driving aimlessly around the country, moving to Dubai, studying abroad to a country I didn’t speak the language… the list could go on literally forever. Everyone had their strong suggestions, but me being an adult, took advantage of the freedom & did whatever I wanted to do.
I’m serious when I say… Praise be.
Being an adult is the SHIT. I don’t miss childhood at all. And I hope each phase of my life feels the same way. I don’t miss the past because I’m so grateful for the present.
What else?
Remembering the choice is YOURS. If you’re confused by everything I rambled about up there, then make sure you’re the one in charge of your decisions. The only reason I think it’s a good idea to be in control of your choices? Because the consequences are yours to own. I’m slightly ruthless with people who continually complain because most of the time they’re complaining about consequences of their own choices. Typically this is career-related. Sometimes, it’s relationships. Other times, it’s money. Or happiness. Whatever it is… remember, your own choices created the result. So make damn sure you’re making the choices you actually want or don’t complain about the results. Often times that means you have to be extra brave or very uncomfortable. Which is… ew. But, remember, the consequences are yours to own so you need to be making decisions that will ultimately make you happy.
Sometimes these wildly free choices don’t have the best consequences, usually they do, but in the rare case they don’t – I’m okay with it because I know it’ll make sense someday. So the free adult decision making that I’ve been doing, is likely going to continue. I’m obsessSsssed with it.
{I honestly had no clue these words were going to come out on a screen until I sat down 20 minutes ago, but you know what? I’m an adult, I’m posting it.}
I hope you enjoyed!
Be thoughtful
Xx