There are some pretty standard ways We as a society determine if someone is truly grown up: graduating from high school or college, securing employment, acquiring a significant other, having children, becoming "financially independent" . . . whatever THAT means . . .
But in this turbulent economic times, us youngin's are having a hard time meeting a lot of those standards. But I think there are better ways to determine if you are truly becoming a "real person" as we college kids say. Here are some tell-tale signs, in my opinion, that you are becoming a grown up:
1) You avoid checking your emails because they are too numerous and stressful.
2) You have so many keys, you have to flip through them all to find the right one.
3) You compare all discussion of large sums of money to your loan payments and rent.
4) You are constantly flabbergasted as to how these young people think they are going to get anywhere in life with attitudes like that!
5) When you are feeling a bit blue, you think of the comp-time you have coming to you, or at least should have coming to you.
6) You find yourself automatically asking people for business cards, even if you don't have any yourself.
7) You discover yourself "networking" at any gathering of more than 4 people. Either that or discussing work-family conflict, even if you don't really have a family.
8) The social gatherings you attend include a larger and larger number of pregnant women or men discussing the significant pregnant women in their lives.
9) Your "elevator" speech actually sounds somewhat natural and less apologetic than it used to.
10) I need to come back for ANOTHER appointment??? When in bloody hell am I supposed to do that??? What do you think I am??? MADE of time???
11) You actually need a religiously updated calendar (maybe even several) to survive and may have given other people access to it in order for the world to continue revolving.
12) Is this MY responsibility? Am I getting paid to do this? Is this in my job description?
13) You unexpectedly find your car out of gas at very inconvenient times.
14) You feel accomplished after spending the day taking care of things that were not actually ever on your to-do list when the day began.
There are many more. Any additions?
15) coffee, tea, caffeine are highly essential (not always but definitely much more often than as a kid)
ReplyDeleteI've started to notice that people stop talking as much as they get older. I can always spot the high school students on the bus or the college freshman on the Metro cuz they just won't shut up!
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