Growing up is tricky. Moving away from our parents makes us realize everything they helped us with. From making our own budgets, being in charge of cooking and cleaning, and trying to grocery shop, we realize we're like a fish out of water. Luckily, our pals from the t.v. show Friends did it first.
1. Grocery shopping is hard.
Grocery shopping on a college students budget is a completely different story. We soon learn that mac n' cheese and cup o' noodle are about to be our budget's new best friend. Unfortunately, our waist lines also learned the same thing pretty quickly
2. Spurts of motivation are far and few between without your parents around to get you off your butt.
I never thought I'd miss my mom telling me to do something five times and hour.
3. I never knew how hard it was to keep a place clean until I got my own.
The dishwasher is only a foot further, but why not just set your dishes in the sink and walk away? Eventually the clutter gets on your nerves and you go on a ridiculous 2 a.m. cleaning spree, but of course, this only happens once a month when you run out of silverware or plates to eat on.
4. Understanding bills and taxes might be harder than trigonometry.
No one really teaches you that in high school. Now, I'm paying monthly bills and trying to figure out how to file my taxes every year?
5. Everyone is oh so quick to remind us how quickly "the future" is approaching.
Ya know, that magical destination where we suddenly have everything figured out and know what we want to do for the rest of our lives.
6. I never knew how many clothes I had until I started doing my own laundry all the time.
Why are there so many buttons on washing machines? And what exactly is classified as a "delicate" and when do I need to select that setting?
7. Relationships get so much more serious.
The aforementioned "future" is ever looming and apparently that means it's time to start figuring out who you want to be with for the rest of your life.
8. We're constantly learning new things about adulthood and living on our own that we never knew.
We'll never let them know that though. Grease can't go down the sink? You're supposed to test smoke detector batteries?
9. On the bright side, we can drink now!
But on the other hand – we can drink now. Liquor is expensive and Saturday mornings can get pretty rough. Will we ever learn? Probably not.
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10. The older we get, the fancier the parties and events we're invited to get.
Sometimes this leads us to formal events where we often feel like the youngest, least experienced person there. Oh well. Free food, right?
11. Not only do we take care of ourselves now, but sometimes we end up taking care of other people.
Our friends, our roommates, an animal or two –we're already floundering taking care of ourselves so we might as well add another to the list.
12. Big kid jobs. When I was younger and working whatever job would hire me, I couldn't wait until I was older and working somewhere "better."
Now that we have our "big kid" jobs that involves longer shifts and dress codes, we find ourselves wondering why we ever looked forward to this.
13. We learned that friends are important.
Whether we've moved a few miles or a few states from our parents, we realized pretty quickly we needed a family. So we made one, we all have that friend that mothers us or friends that we mother. They said we had to grow up, they never said we had to do it alone. You get close with your friends and hold on for dear life. What would you ever do without them?
14. Punctuality is key as an adult.
No one likes an employee who is late or a person who can't ever show up for an appointment on time. We should have plenty of practice in this area after years of getting ourselves up and to class on time, but it just never seemed to work out that way.
15. Like it or not, we're adults now (or we're supposed to be).
If we haven't got it figured out yet, we'll figure it out along the way. Best of luck, friends.
