Maybe this goes for a lot of people, or maybe not, but when I was younger, I used to think there was this fine line between being a kid and an adult. When I used to look at my parents, I thought, those are real adults right there, and that is going to be me some day. I am going to work my desk job nine to five and come home and make dinner, go to sleep, and do it all over again forever. I would also have everything figured out, because that was how it always seemed.

I think high school is when I started to see that they didn't have everything figured out, that they, too, were flawed. But I was still a teenager, incapable of understanding what it was like to be an adult.

I am now entering my last year of undergrad, and will have been out of the house for four years, living in an apartment for two. I have had internships, worked as a server, been on the board of organizations, taken on a car payment, been responsible for utilities and rent and food for myself. I have talked to people my age, and people much older. It was one of these days that I had the realization that I was an adult now. I didn't really feel any different (which I thought I would). But I now recognized my mom was bad at saving money, and my dad was bad and dealing with his emotions. I have met 40 year olds with half of the emotional maturity of people my age (and vice versa). Some people can be in committed relationships, and others cannot. Some are motivated, and a lot are not. And most seem stuck in the day job cycle, always talking of "some day" dreams, that I realize will probably never happen.

This is maybe what I have realized the most about adults. They are a lot like kids, dreaming big but having no idea how to make it happen, so they don't try. Or they think they have all of the time in the world. I don't want to be like that. I am actually very determined not to be. No matter your age, everyone is still trying to figure life out, and everyone thinks they have plenty of time. Don't be among these people. Start putting the work in today to get to where you want to go. You do not have to be stuck as the idealized adult society has created. Dream big. Be different. Good luck in adulthood.