College is a time of transition.

For the first time, many students are living away from their family, and are starting to become more independent. There's no fridge full of food supplied by parents, there's no curfew, there's no one to do your laundry. While lots of college students are still completely dependent on their parents, this is the transition phase, where students start to "adult" more often, and learn how to fend for themselves. At the same time, the term "adulting" seems woven into speech of people who are proud of themselves for doing menial tasks that they associate as "adult-like."

The term "adulting" according to Urban Dictionary, is "to do grown up things and hold responsibilities such as, a 9-5 job, a mortgage/rent, a car payment, or anything else that makes one think of grown ups." An alternative definition on the website says "Being a responsible adult. Used by immature 20-somethings who are proud of themselves for paying a bill." It seems like "adulting" is used by people who feel proud of themselves for doing something they wouldn't normally do but find themselves doing now that they're transitioning into adulthood. To see how people were using the term, I took to Twitter to look at how people were tweeting about it.

The first thing I noticed is that there's a very large range of things that people who use "adulting" to talk about. The tweets ranged from "I woke up before 9am and don't have to work. I'm definitely adulting" to "just washed my first dish at my new apartment #adulting." There were tweets about individuals cooking for themselves, doing taxes, and making doctors appointments. Generally, tweeters seemed to be proud of themselves for accomplishing an adult-like task. However, there seemed to be a wide range of what was defined as "adult." Waking up early seemed meaningless compared to paying bills.

I also noticed a fair amount of controversy among twitter users who were using "adulting" in their tweets. The difference seemed to be from the amount of "adulting" that people were doing. Several users tweeted angrily about people who have parents paying their $30,000/year tuition bills and tweet proudly of their adult ways. Others pointed out that "adulting" was just a way for people to complain about having to grow up and gain some responsibility. East Carolina University is even making an "adulting" counseling program to help students handle stress and cope with adult life.

Is "adulting" a way of being responsible and independent? Or is it being used as an excuse for acting a certain way. On Twitter, I saw tweets like "I'm done adulting for the day," with a picture of the individual holding a margarita and sitting by a swimming pool. I've also seen the opposite, where a picture like that is accompanied by "Perks of adulting." So, "adulting" can be claiming responsibility, and it can also be used to repel responsibility. It seems to be a way to cope with having to figure things out for yourself, and a way to be proud of newfound independence.

While transitioning from young adult to independent adult, it is important to praise yourself for the little things you accomplish, especially when a lot of responsibilities that are labeled as "adult" can be tricky and stressful. But, transition means you don't have to go at it alone. Keep "adulting" but don't forget to thank the people who are helping you get there.