You know when you pick up your drink, and you think it's one thing, and then you take a sip and realize it's something entirely different? Even if the entirely different something is a drink you like, you immediately grimace and sputter and double-check the label in shock. It just wasn't at all what you expected.
Being an adult is like that.
We seem to spend most of our lives looking forward to the next thing. When you're in middle school, all you want is to be in junior high. When you're in junior high, the high schoolers are the coolest people that ever existed. Once you get to high school, college is the only thing that matters. And when you get to college, you simply can't wait until you turn 21. Then you can't wait 'til you get an apartment. Then you can't wait 'til you get married. Then you can't wait 'til you have kids.
We spend so much time trying to get to the next step of life that we don't remember how hard it was to take the step that got us here, where we are now. It's like that dream where you feel like you're running in glue. Infuriating.
That first unexpected taste, high school, left me spluttering for quite some time. I thought high school was going to be fun and awesome. It turned out to be something quite different. It was still a worthwhile experience, and overall a likeable one, but it definitely wasn't what I expected. It was like reaching for Coke and realizing it was actually Pepsi.
College was another unsettling sip. I believed college was going to be something like high school, academically, but way cooler because I was living there and my time would be my own, etc. College is way harder than high school. All that freedom makes it hard to concentrate. And guess what? Friends don't just happen to you -- you have to make an effort. I pouted about that one for a good long while. Reached for Dr Pepper, got a slurp of Sprite.
Now I'm in Responsible Adult Limbo. I'm even at one of those awkward ages that doesn't mean anything, so you always forget how old you are. I constantly tell people I'm 21, and then have to correct myself.
I have an apartment, cats, and a fish. I cook my own food (when I cook), and make my own sandwiches (or popcorn). If I want to, I can read on my balcony for an hour-and-a-half. Or I can watch as many movies in a row as I want, without anyone getting bored or annoyed with me. In that way, I very much enjoy the adult life.
Unfortunately there is also another side to adult life. That side consists entirely of money, that awful human invention. They don't mention this side to you when they talk about being an adult. They don't mention the Exorbitant Money-Sucking Loans, or a monthly rent, or an electricity bill. They don't tell you how cable packages cost an arm and a leg, how internet costs even more, or how groceries become impossibly expensive once you're buying them yourself. They don't talk about how sometimes you have to cut out McDonald's for weeks at a time to make ends meet.
They didn't mention it, and we didn't notice. Running in glue.
I think in this case, I definitely reached for some milk, only to realize it was orange juice. Orange juice is harder to swallow, and just about as tart as a liquid can get. In general, I like orange juice. But I was expecting milk, and I guess it just... caught me off guard.
When I sat down to write a post, this was all that came through my fingers. This posting every other day thing is not as easy as I thought it would be... Maybe I thought that writing a blog would somehow make finishing a book the next step. If that's true, I am definitely running in super-glue. And I'm being chased by rabid coyotes to boot.
Being an adult is like that.
We seem to spend most of our lives looking forward to the next thing. When you're in middle school, all you want is to be in junior high. When you're in junior high, the high schoolers are the coolest people that ever existed. Once you get to high school, college is the only thing that matters. And when you get to college, you simply can't wait until you turn 21. Then you can't wait 'til you get an apartment. Then you can't wait 'til you get married. Then you can't wait 'til you have kids.
We spend so much time trying to get to the next step of life that we don't remember how hard it was to take the step that got us here, where we are now. It's like that dream where you feel like you're running in glue. Infuriating.
That first unexpected taste, high school, left me spluttering for quite some time. I thought high school was going to be fun and awesome. It turned out to be something quite different. It was still a worthwhile experience, and overall a likeable one, but it definitely wasn't what I expected. It was like reaching for Coke and realizing it was actually Pepsi.
College was another unsettling sip. I believed college was going to be something like high school, academically, but way cooler because I was living there and my time would be my own, etc. College is way harder than high school. All that freedom makes it hard to concentrate. And guess what? Friends don't just happen to you -- you have to make an effort. I pouted about that one for a good long while. Reached for Dr Pepper, got a slurp of Sprite.
Now I'm in Responsible Adult Limbo. I'm even at one of those awkward ages that doesn't mean anything, so you always forget how old you are. I constantly tell people I'm 21, and then have to correct myself.
I have an apartment, cats, and a fish. I cook my own food (when I cook), and make my own sandwiches (or popcorn). If I want to, I can read on my balcony for an hour-and-a-half. Or I can watch as many movies in a row as I want, without anyone getting bored or annoyed with me. In that way, I very much enjoy the adult life.
Unfortunately there is also another side to adult life. That side consists entirely of money, that awful human invention. They don't mention this side to you when they talk about being an adult. They don't mention the Exorbitant Money-Sucking Loans, or a monthly rent, or an electricity bill. They don't tell you how cable packages cost an arm and a leg, how internet costs even more, or how groceries become impossibly expensive once you're buying them yourself. They don't talk about how sometimes you have to cut out McDonald's for weeks at a time to make ends meet.
They didn't mention it, and we didn't notice. Running in glue.
I think in this case, I definitely reached for some milk, only to realize it was orange juice. Orange juice is harder to swallow, and just about as tart as a liquid can get. In general, I like orange juice. But I was expecting milk, and I guess it just... caught me off guard.
When I sat down to write a post, this was all that came through my fingers. This posting every other day thing is not as easy as I thought it would be... Maybe I thought that writing a blog would somehow make finishing a book the next step. If that's true, I am definitely running in super-glue. And I'm being chased by rabid coyotes to boot.
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