I was 17 years-old when I moved out of my parent's house and now, five years later, I’m finally starting to feel like a real adult. Being an adult, or some vague shadow of an adult is really freaking hard. Throughout the years, I’ve learned what being an adult really means. I learned all of these the hard way.
1. Everything is expensive.
It’s not just superficial things like clothes and makeup that eat your money away either. When I first moved out, it was honestly shocking how expensive it was just to stock my home with necessities. Your sink will need soap, you bathroom with need towels, and then on top of that, you have to worry about feeding yourself. The odds end up being stacked against you and sometimes you will have to wonder if you should save those quarters for laundry or use them to buy ramen.
2. Whatever you planned to do will rarely work out.
When I first went to college, I was sure I was going to work in the media. I was all set to pursue a degree in communication. Now, I’m going into my senior year, majoring in Criminology and looking forward to law school applications. Somehow the universe will manage to take you plans and throw them out of the window.
3. You can eat whatever you want and that’s not always a good thing.
Gone are the days of your mother telling you to eat your vegetables. You can eat cereal breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you want! Most of the time you gain ten pounds and feel like utter garbage afterward. I realized that becoming an adult not only meant that I had to buy frozen vegetables, but I had to actually eat them too.
4. There’s also no bed time. This is also not always a good thing.
Staying up late somehow becomes the norm once you move out. Maybe it’s because there’s no one to tell you not to hit “Next Episode” on Netflix and just go to bed. Maybe it’s the freedom of knowing that you are responsible for your own bedtime. My advice? Go to sleep. Waking up early is better than staying up late.
5. There are things you never knew needed to be cleaned that need to be cleaned.
When’s the last time you wiped down your fridge? Or your stove? Honestly, one of the biggest lessons I learned when I lived on my own was finding out just how dirty your living space can get, even without even doing anything.
6. No one really cares about you.
I don’t mean this in a negative way. That’s not to take away from your friends and family who do love you. Becoming an adult means that realizing that those randoms on the street don’t really care that you tripped on your way to work or that you didn’t wear makeup to the store. The general public is amazingly oblivious. Once you start realizing that no one cares, you stop caring what people think.
8. You might end up hating your job.
Even if you think it’s your dream job. Even if it’s just a summer job. There is a high probability that you will end up hating your job. It really sucks, but the only thing you can really do is suck it up or quit. But it’s okay because your job doesn’t have to be your life.
9. You might even end up totally losing it in public.
Remember what I said about not caring what other people think? That comes in handy if you end up crying on the subway. I’m not saying I have done this, but I’m also not saying I haven’t.
10. It is going to be okay.
A cliche way to end this list, but I promise it’s going to be okay.
