No matter how hard you try to convince yourself that you're ready to be an adult, no one ever really is. Adulting is one of the most rewarding, yet challenging transitions a human can experience. It involves a lot of energy, and we disregard things in the process. There are some things you don't care about anymore once you're adulting, because you honestly don't have the time or patience for them. You're simply just growing up and establishing your own lifestyle.
This doesn't mean that once you're an adult you completely forget any and everything you did when you were a teenager. These particular things just don't seem to matter as much as they would have when you were not incredibly focused on being an adult. Because there's not just one way to be an adult; we are all sort of on our own when it comes to molding the person we want to be.
Call it desensitization if you want, but the little things that used to make or break us have lost their hold since we started adulting. And maybe these things aren't all that deep, but we still have refocused our attention from them. If you have your hands full of adulting, then it's likely that you're no longer or you're just starting to not care about a few things.
Like I mentioned earlier, no two adults are the same. We are all just stumbling through adulting with different end goals in mind. Once you're getting into the swing of establishing yourself as an adult, you really don't care about people's (usually blunt and rude) opinions about how you're adulting. You do things your way and I will do things my way, OK?
Look, we aren't in high school anymore. We aren't all forced to be at the same place at the same time during the week. It can be exhausting trying to keep up with people simply because that's what you're used to doing. Adulting sort of veers you off that course, and you start to realize that your real friends never really disconnect.
Food is food. Cold pizza on the table? Well, looks like I don't have to grab a bagel for breakfast. We grow up believing that some foods are specifically for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, but that idea seemingly goes out the window. Sometimes you really just don't have that leisurely time to adhere to a clock when it comes to your food choice intake.
Popularity might have seemed somewhat appealing when we were teens. When you're adulting though, that crap really doesn't matter anymore, because popularity just doesn't mean anything. You have your group of friends and you're open to meeting new people, but being labeled "popular" is not on the top of your to-do list.
Remember when the top 100 on the radio was everything? Well, it ain't so much that way anymore. By now, everything has started to sound the same on the radio, so you've strayed away from that and started to plug in your own tunes, or frequent a specific podcast. Music is what helps us get through adulting, and there's no way the radio could depict the specific musical feels we need.
OK, there are definitely some prime birthdays you celebrate as an adult, but every single one doesn't make you want to go all out. Sooner or later, we realize that it's just like any other day and that we shouldn't just value that one day as a day to celebrate. Living and breathing every day that you are allotted is something worth celebrating.
When we first got that taste of adult freedom (you know, the kind where we weren't just a pawn in whatever our parents had planned for us), we loved it and soaked it up. We were always overexcited about what amazing plans we would coordinate for the weekend. Now, always making plans is tiring, and sometimes, the best plan is to make no plans at all and just go with the flow (which usually involves watching Netflix and ordering in). Standards haven't fallen — blissful contentment has just settled in.
Who doesn't like telling someone that they're right, even if it means arguing? Well, sooner or later, you get over it, and if the person doesn't get it when you kindly explain your point of view on something, you just agree to disagree. We learn to save our genuine need to argue for those times when we are going to really need it.
Adulting is taking all of us down our own paths of self-discovery and unique experiences. Not caring about those minuscule things doesn't mean you're acting brand new. You're growing, and you should be proud of yourself.
