When we are little, we all play dress up to some extent. Whether it's trying on our father's ties as young boys, or trying to fill our mother's high heels with our tiny feet. Either way at some point, we gaze into a mirror and try to imagine what we will be like as adults. We imagine that maybe we will have nice clothes, a house, and a real job that requires many cups of coffee to get through. At the end of the day, we know that everything in this imaginary adult world we will love because being an adult seems like the ultimate dream. However, now that we are "adults" it is this awful thing that is hard to enjoy, but when did being an adult become such a bad thing? What was it that really changed adulthood for the worst?
In college, I hear people talk around me with excitement that they, much like myself, can't wait to start their career jobs. Albeit not many of us know exactly what it is we will do, but we know it will be an "adult" job. I personally can not wait to have a full time job, because, quite frankly, I am tired of sitting in lectures and not getting to actually apply the material I have learned. When do we lose the sense of adventure that we make the adult world seem like? Sure adulthood comes with it's up and downs, but that is life. Being an adult is something we have looked forward to all of our lives. Think about it:
School flies by in an instant, even though most days it feels as though it drags by, it truly does fly. One day we are sitting in kindergarten making friends that to this day we still remember, or are even still friends with. The next thing we know we are sitting in high school wishing we could go back to the days of nap time and juice boxes. If we aren't dreaming of the juice box days, then we are imagining what life will be like with our job and our own home. Everything in your school career is preparing and leading up to the day that we graduate high school. However, life after high school is a new chapter that we can't wait to start because in this chapter you are sometimes considered an "adult".
Perhaps we lose the excitement because of the generations before us. I mean seriously, who do we hear complain the most about things? From those who are older than us. They talk about the future with such gloom and despair that, at the end of the day, it has slowly eroded away at the idea of being an adult. All throughout childhood they say, "stay young while you can" and now all you hear is, "I'm sorry for the world you'll grow up in" or, "there won't be anything left for your children." I don't want to stay young, I want to be older.
I can't wait to actually learn how to file taxes. Yes, I know that this will be one of the biggest pains in my life. However, it is part of being an adult and one thing I wish I was actually taught how to do in school. Another thing is I'm excited to have a mortgage. This signifies that I have made not only a major investment, but I have reached a major life goal. As far as raising kids in the future, I understand that some things I grew up with won't be around in their time. Things my parents saw as kids weren't around for me either, but that's okay. I know that the in the future, things will be much different, and I can't wait to see what we accomplish with all of the technology we have.
It's time to change our views of adulthood and for the better. If we take on a negative outlook, we will pass it on to the kids who look up to us and to those that we have interactions with. I want people to be excited about the things they can accomplish in the future. If people start to think that there is no point, no one will want to keep working to make things better.
Yes, "adulting" is hard, but it's worth it, never forget that.
