When everyone I know was little, younger than eighteen that is, they only really wanted to grow up, move out, and start their adult life. Never was my cup of tea, so I figured, why rush? There'll be plenty of time later to focus on being "an adult." Now, at 21 — almost 22 — years of age, I realized, you don't plan on growing up, it just sort of happens.

You never really decide one day that a job with benefits is better and what you're aiming for rather than the comfort of sitting in the same job week after week in complacency. It just drops down on you one day, blindsiding you really on a random Tuesday afternoon, and suddenly, BOOM! You realize you're an adult or possibly an adult in the making with all the trials and tribulations.

Worrying about your paycheck? Check.

Worrying about gas in the car? Check.

Worrying about insurance for the car? Check.

Worrying about food for the week? Check.

Worrying about money for house bills? Check.

I never really planned for this. Hell, I never even asked for it. It just sort of happened. I recently read online that early adulthood is like playing the first few levels of a video game and you didn't bother to read or play the tutorial to help you along. That is so ungodly true. That is so wrong, though.

Life is nothing like a video game. If you lose in a video game, you get to start over, sometimes from the beginning and then can try your best to make it to the end the best way possible. That doesn't always happen in life. Because honestly, if you fuck up, and you fuck up BIG, that may be the end all, be all. And I'm not talking triple homicide or vehicular manslaughter, I mean like messing up a friendship, not making the effort with a parent because why the friend leaves for real or the parent dies. That's it. No turning the system off before it saves to start over, or unplugging the system completely all together. That's the end.

In lieu of this all, I personally made a checklist on how to handle growing up. A little how to do on how to handle being thrust out of the nest into the world when it seems like everyone is a Big Bad Wolf waiting to with what large teeth it has to eat you.

1. Enjoy the Little Things

To quote Dr. Denis Leary, "Happiness comes in small doses.

It's a cigarette, a chocolate chip cookie, or five-second orgasm. You cum, you smoke the butt, you eat the cookie, and then ya get up and go to work the next day." In a world where only grand Hollywood gestures are recognized, it seems the little things are forgotten. If someone, takes time out of their day to present you with a cookie, that means that person took time out of their own shitty day to think about YOU. Accept the damn cookie and say thank you. Even if they got you a peanut butter cookie and you're allergic to nuts, say thank you and accept the sugary goodness.

2. Remember Compliments Received

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you accomplish this, tell me how. Not everyone is on your side, but a precious few who will sit beside you in the cop car on a sweltering July night saying they had your back and still think you're the bee's knees and the greatest person they know. Those are the ones who love you. Keep them close and remember what they say when you feel down.

3. Enjoy Youth

Enjoy your youth as it comes. As you get older, your health declines, people go away, and things just seem a little bit darker sometimes. The past, though, even the parts that make you cringe in disgust or horror, seem a little bit brighter. Youth makes everything seem like rose-tinted glasses revolved around your vision. Cherish memories of happiness when your whole family broke out in song and dance on an arbitrary Wednesday night. Or the time you went mud bogging in the back of your dad's pickup while your mom drove as James Taylor's "Country Road" blared through the speakers. You were young and didn't have a care in the whole-wide world and its seven plus billion inhabitants. Hold onto it. Sometimes the most obscure memories of joy can make all the difference in your own universe.

4. Accept Loss

Accept that there will be loss in your life. It could be a friend, a relative, or a child, but accept that they moved on. And I don't mean in a six-feet under type, but accept that people die, people move, and people lose touch. What matters in the end, though, is that they lived, and out of all the people around them, they chose to share their time, their energy, and their world with you. It doesn't matter if they move away, or if they pass. The fact is they lived, and you should continue to as well.

5. Live, Bitches, And Do It Well

Take that trip to the Grand Canyon. Kiss the girl. Laugh more. Just whatever you do, live much. I have watched too many people ignore every second that the world gives. See as many faces as you can. Learn the language. Eat the food. Take the dare, get drunk, and kiss a random stranger at the festival. The point is live while you can. Runaway to a different state when you have those two days free, and be extraordinary. I'd rather live and own every moment saying I did what I wanted, than stay in and coddle myself from the world. I'm stuck here, I may as well make it a path of my own choosing.

6. Smile More Often

Smile, bitches. It takes 10 muscles in the face to make a smile and the moment you do that it sets off a chain reaction of endorphins that transfer the serotonin into your brain to make you happy. Even if you're the farthest thing from it, the chain reaction is already started and you have taken the first step to handle your life even if it is just getting out of bed to make breakfast for yourself and throw some laundry in the washer. The point is, you're trying.