Feast
Today’s One Word Wednesday photos were taken at our second annual Friendsgiving feast. The meal was traditional with some twists and lots of beautiful, friendly faces filled the table.
Today’s One Word Wednesday photos were taken at our second annual Friendsgiving feast. The meal was traditional with some twists and lots of beautiful, friendly faces filled the table.
I had an interesting conversation with some dear lady friends the other night. The topic? What makes an adult.
We are 30, 32, and 34 and the argument against us being adults went something like this,
“I have two degrees but live with my parents.”
“I own a house but my mom pays my phone bill and I’m a student.”
“I own a car and a house but wouldn’t be able to without family help.”
“I pay all my bills but not always on time.”
None of us have kids yet. We all have bachelor degrees. We’ve all lived in foreign countries, traveled extensively, and worked a variety of jobs. Are we adults?
I remember when I was a kid I thought being an adult meant being able to recognize which language someone was speaking, understanding investing, and being able to navigate public transportation, all things that alluded me as a kid on a farm in West Virginia.
Through my twenties I would periodically check in with myself, similar to my conversation with those lovely ladies the other night. I distinctly remember that I didn’t feel adult enough to get married until I was 26 (which now sounds young to me!). By 28 I didn’t feel ready to buy a house or have kids but moving to a foreign city of 10 million and finding an apartment totally happened. Throughout these check ins my resounding response to the question “am I an adult yet?” was “nope”.
I hit a turning point around 30. It’s definitely not that I all of a sudden grew up and got super responsible. Kinda the opposite. I realized that that moment of growing up and becoming an adult never actually happens. It’s a super slow process that can sometimes only be seen in retrospect. It’s acknowledging that if you are the kind of kid who never has their shit together than unless you take steps to change it, that’s the kind of adult you will be or maybe already are. On the other hand, some people are born with their shit together. Neither makes you more grown up, neither makes you a better person. The truth is adulthood is a huge spectrum and is different for every single person.
Here are 6 things that made me realize that the time had arrived, damnit, I’m an adult now. These are all super personal to my journey and in no way comprehensive but I thought I’d share.
I am just starting my journey as an adult and it’s one I will be on for the rest of my life. I am pretty much banking on looking back at this post in 10 years and thinking “my, how you’ve grown Faith, you were just a baby-adult back then at 32.” But you know what? 10 years after that, at 52, I could have the same thought about 42, and so on and so on.
Here’s to embracing that long, exciting, terrifying journey.
Do you consider yourself an adult? Why or why not?