6/27/2016 0 Comments adulting is hardEveryone jokes about "adulting," which seems to be a term that attempts to describe the rocky pathway from teen years to the real world. This adulting phase basically takes your seatbelt off and throws you into an unfamiliar universe with a not-so-comforting affirmation of "you'll be okay" and maybe even "it's just a part of growing up." People in our generation are characterized as arrogant, self-righteous, and especially lazy, and it seems that when it comes to "adulting," we accept these insulting stereotypes and give up in a sense. Yes, adulting is hard, but part of the battle is the preconception that it's going to be hard. Anticipation is KILLER and part of our issue with becoming adults is that we expect it to be difficult and expect ourselves to be overwhelmed. While it's important to be humble and know our limits, it's also important to know that things like making our own doctor's appointments or googling how to ship a car to your new apartment won't kill you. In fact, none of these one adulting challenges will. Will it be difficult to motivate yourself to assemble a sort-of salad the night before work when you could be spending it gaping over the last episode of Jessica Jones? HELL YES. But it's not impossible and it won't kill you to do it. As I get older, I can trick myself into believing that I have no free time, that all I do is work, and that the summer is disappearing before my eyes with nothing being accomplished besides 5 lesson plans a week. Again, mindset is everything. A big part of adulting is remembering to be a child. Growing up makes me think of getting taller, bigger, stronger, and smarter & how could you possibly do that by throwing away the lessons & games you learned as a child? At the end of the day, what matters is effort. This can be so hard for many of us, who are so preoccupied with presenting ourselves to the world as hardworking individuals, trying to find enough value in ourselves through tiring work so that we can get some sort of affirmation from our parents and society that we're doing okay and doing what we're supposed to be doing. But that pressure to get all As, to do IB, to join every club, to lose 10 pounds, to have a boyfriend, to work year round, etc. etc., many times comes from ourselves instead of others. I work with kindergarteners ages five to six and usually have to look after 20-28 by myself for a full day. I've never done this before. I'm not a superhero. Children are notorious for being unable to sit down, cut their own construction paper, or walk to the bathroom by themselves. I am starting to learn that no matter how much planning, prepping, and praying I do, I will never be perfect and neither will my kids. It's the effort that counts. And I am trying to remind myself that I've never had a full-time job before and there are so many things that I am doing for the first time as an adult. Yes, adulting is tough, but so is my skin, and I think that realization by itself will save me.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |