I'm Not a Very Good Grown Up

I’ll confess. I’m not a very good grown up. Maybe that’s because I’m still growing up (I’m only 21). But then again, maybe it’s because my nature isn’t very conducive to being grown up. This is not to say that I’m super irresponsible either. Because I think that I can show great responsibility in things that I believe in, like taking care of my little brother, being a good friend, doing well in school, working to make a positive difference in the world, etc. The things that I’m not good at being adult about are things that I sometimes find mundane, things that I feel force me to become obsessive about aspects of life that I don’t necessarily want to become my focus (possessions and money and appearances being the three main categories I can think of). Here is a list of some of the things I suck at being an adult about, usually meaning that I barely know anything about them (and don’t really want to):

-portfolios and stocks and Roth IRAs and mutual funds and bonds and cds (I don’t even know if I used all of these words right)

-real estate

-sub mortgage prime rates (again, do these words even make sense when strung together like this?)

-balancing my checkbook

-botox

-anti-aging cremes

-how to hand-make the cutest napkin holders

-when all the biggest department stores have their sales

-what the finest wines are

-time shares

-insurance

-loans

-credit cards (don’t even have one)

-perming/dying hair

-cleaning gutters

-dry cleaning

-ironing

-how to get rich quick

-how to step on as many people as I can in order to climb the ladder

-cubicle land etiquette (though I have worked in a cubicle land once, the atmosphere seemed uncommonly joyous and fun to me, perhaps because there were so many young at heart (regardless of the actual age) students and professors and doctors working there)

-wanting nothing more than having a stable routine

-living vicariously through t.v. and shows and other forms of entertainment

Ok, ok. So some of these things it seems like I’m just lazy because I haven’t learned how to do them and/or don’t want to yet. Other things I’m just not that into because they’re not really my priorities in life. Still others I wish no adults fell into the trap of being “in to.” From the comical to the serious, adulthood requires a lot of us. I think though, that if we are conscious of those aspects of adulthood that seem soul-sucking and life-depleting, we can work to either not get in to them, or to make them our own happy young in spirit events. Cleaning gutters while singing in the rain, anyone?