This birthday was a bit of a huge milestone. It was my 20th birthday. This means that I am no longer a teenager and I am officially considered an adult.
While a person's 18th birthday is when they might be, legally, considered an adult, that only means you have to go to college, can buy cigarettes and dirty magazines at stores, and are allowed to vote. However, 18 year olds are still considered teenagers and are entitled to acting like a child for two more years.
20 is the official start of adulthood. It's also the start of the decade where you are supposed to "find yourself' but that's not what I'm talking about today.
I feel like I am prepared for my 20's because I have already done a bunch of adult things prior to turning 20.
In fact, I have a prepared list of adult things that I have already done before turning 20 right here.
1. Paid for things with a debit card and my own bank account
2. Taken a Lyft and an Uber
3. Worked a boring office job
4. Gotten neck pain from doing data entry at said boring office job
5. Went on job interviews
6. Got a job canvassing
7. Experienced the pain of rejection at said canvassing job
8. Gotten pain from walking around at said canvassing job
9. Gotten tendinitis in my knees
10. Slept with extra pillows in my bed to support all the pain in my body parts from aforementioned jobs and tendinitis
11. Ghosted someone who was interested in me romantically, but I wasn't interested in them romantically, and didn't know how to let them down easy
12. Put raw quinoa on my salad
13. Discussed politics with my family
14. Willingly took a train to Newark to do something for school. No one wants to go to Newark.
15. Been tasked with deciding what to delete from my phone and/or computer in order to increase storage.
16. Realized that I have a lot of stupid and/or badly taken photos on my phone from the past few years
17. Felt nostalgic about my childhood. This usually applies to the TV channels that I grew up on, with their terribly repetitive new schedules and their terrible new shows
18. Felt old when I realized how many years ago some pop culture event, movie, Tv show or song was released or happened
19. Looked at the next generation, also known as people a few years younger than me, with disgust, disappointment, and fear for our country's future
20. Turned on the radio, had no idea what any of the new songs were, and disliked them
21. Stayed in on both Friday and Saturday nights because I didn't want to go out.
After listing all these "adult things" that I have accomplished, I feel pretty confident about the next decade of my life. I feel like my teenage years have already been an extension of my twenties, because I've spent them basically being a "adult."
