Adult-ing or adulting, is the carrying out of day to day tasks which one needs to be able to maintain a lifestyle or standard of living. The term is mostly used by young adults as a way to convey that they are taking responsibility in their day to day lives. The following list contains activities many of us consider to be adulting:

1. Daily Routine

Maintaining a daily routine with a set wake up schedule and bed time to ensure that the day is productive, those five extra minutes in bed will forever be missed but it's worth it if it means getting everything done on time. Anyone who can eat meals at regular times and make healthy choices, on the daily deserves a Gold Star; the same goes for those who get homework done on time or ahead of time, or the day of, as long as it gets handed in before class…

2. Cleaning

Let's be honest a clean dorm room is a rare sight. Making the bed at some point in the week, is normally pushed off until the week after. Taking out the trash and the recycling before it starts to smell, or as soon as they have reached overflow capacity, is more of whichever comes first. That being said putting all the dirty clothes in the hamper, and there is no reason why they shouldn’t have been there in the first place, seems to be a challenge… Maybe if there's extra time washing the stack of dishes that had been forgotten about until now, will become a priority again. When there are no other options for where a smell could be coming from, blasting the shoes with deodorizer is the only other option besides tossing out past date items.

3. Advocating For Yourself

We all struggle at times to advocate for ourselves but going through the drive-through and being the friend who orders for everyone is an accomplishment to be proud of as is: ordering first at a restaurant, correcting the order if it didn’t come out correctly the first time, and making new friends on your way to class, because puppies count right?

4. Paying Bills

Seeing as many of us learned about filling out checks and budgeting in our late teens it's a miracle if we can keep track of it all, with the hopes of saving money for textbooks and fun the next semester. Filling out and keeping track of checks and online payments for credit cards and loans, are important parts of being able to be a functional adult. Thank goodness for being able to pay online because we already ordered food all by ourselves this week and we don’t want to push it by paying over the phone or in person.

5. Taxes

Must I say anything else?

6. Cars

Cars in general are a source of key adulting activities such as: going for the oil change, and only the oil change; same, but with tires; checking the oil and tire pressure regularly without getting reminders from your parents; and changing a tire all by yourself. Higher level adulting occurs when you jump start your roommate's car a few days before break only to have it not start after getting to the gas station and she fills it up all the way; calling AAA for the first time, even though it was for someone else; or the most difficult being keeping food and water in the car for emergencies, and not eating it right away because being hungry is an emergency!

7. Post Office

Getting to the post-office by yourself, on time, and carrying EVERYTHING home without help and mailing a package with the proper postage and tape without making multiple trips back to your dorm to try and fix it, honestly… goals.

8. Laundry

Do you keep your dirty laundry in a contained space? Maintain a laundry schedule so nothing gets too smells? Use laundry pods for their intended purpose only? Congratulations you are a pro at adulting!

So, celebrate the little victories in life because that is where the fun of being an adult actually is. Maybe, the more you celebrate waking up when your alarm clock goes off, the easier it will be to wake up in the morning.