This week I will turn 30, the magical age. Some time ago I read an article about things people would have liked to know about being an adult before they grew up, and I decided to add my own thoughts ti this topic. I suppose there never was a kid who wasn't eager to grow up but is being an adult as fun as kids seem to think? Let us see..
"When I am adult I can and I am allowed to do what I want to do". Hell no. If I could do whatever I wanted, I would be on a sandy beach drinking passion fruit margaritas. Theoretically speaking I am allowed to do that but I cannot, because I don't have time or money, especially not at the same time. It would have been nice to be warned that most of grown up life is full of compulsory things. I have to go to work, work, go home, do grocery shopping, cook dinner, prepare lunch, take a shower, do laundry etc. After all that, it's usually 6 or 7 o'clock and having been up about 12 hours I cannot find any strength to do anything I would choose to do. It's the same with money. I wish I had known that most of income goes to compulsory things, bills that have to be paid, other necessary expenses and after that there is very little to use for the things I would choose to use my money for. All in all, I guess I was a happier person before I had to take the sole responsibility for my own life and finances and I still had time for friends and hobbies and things that bring joy to life. Now I just work.
Dream job. What the fuck is a dream job? Probably the biggest myth of childhood just after Santa. Yes, I had plenty of dream jobs, such as teacher (kids are shit annoying), doctor (I am scared of seeing blood), flight attendant (motion sickness) etc. I wonder what happened to the ease with which I approached selecting my dream job. Now everything about the job market seems complicated. How can I know what I want to do when I am 40? Should I just have one job I want to do until I retire, why wouldn't I be allowed to change? I guess many people just end up doing something completely else that what they dreamed of doing. Sometimes you just have to compromise. Maybe what you do is not your dream but it gets the bills paid and bills are sure to come whether you are employed or not, so better just do something to earn my own money.
When you are adult you are going to own a house and a car and so on. Yes, you can probably own all kind of nice things but most of them come saddled with loan installments to pay and complete lack of freedom and flexibility.
When I am adult I can stay up all night. Sure I can but it's difficult to stay up late. When I am adult I can eat as much candy as I want to. Now we have found something interesting. Sure I can eat lots and lots of candy, and no one can tell me chocolate is not breakfast, but my boring alter ego tells me not to, because after all, chocolate is not a healthy breakfast. The kid me would not have cared but the adult me reminds me of the positive health effects of oatmeal.
I wish somebody had also warned me how quickly aging starts to feel in the body. If I sit for a long time, my legs gets numb and start swelling, all kinds of pains and aches appear. There will be problems with sleeping and blood pressure, there will be a lurking heart condition and the cholesterol level will be too high. Metabolism starts to slow down and I cannot eat dessert anymore because my belly is already sitting on my lap.
Some years ago I talked about being grown up with my friend and we both agreed that we had no idea it was going to be so difficult. All the decisions are mine to make and responsibilities are mine to bear and there is no guarantee I will make good decisions and no one else to blame if they are bad. At the worst life is just achieving and even at the best it's still full of joyless things. Don't grow up, it's a trap.
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