I bought the domain “at20something” because that’s how old I am and because all of the better names were already taken, including my first and middle name. Also, I’m not very creative. Hence the two cats that I’ve named Kitty and Kitten. I also couldn’t name it anything too specific because I don’t want a blog about anything specific. Anywho… Let’s talk about being 20 something.
I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit this, but I have a feeling other people can probably relate here. When I was a kid, I used to dream about the day when I grew up and didn’t have to wake up to go to school anymore. Not in like that life is going to be so awesome and I just can’t wait for it to get here kind of way, but the omg all I want to do is SLEEP IN and when I’m an adult, I won’t have to wake up early to go to school five days a week!
I told you it was embarrassing. At the ripe old age of 11 (I have a feeling those wishes were the most intense during the middle school years), I was looking forward to the day when I didn’t have to wake up early five days a week.
There are really cool things about being an adult. I actually can sleep in if I want to and nobody will yell at me for it. My boss may call me at 7:15 and ask me if I plan on coming into work for the day (that only happens every once in a blue moon), but nobody yells at me. My dad isn’t at my house playing Enya as loud as the stereo will go. My mom doesn’t try to vacuum the house to annoy me. (I do have a Tom cat that tops my parents in the annoying department though.) I can also buy whatever food that I want and eat it whenever I want. Hungry? Mom won’t tell me to eat a piece of cheese till dinner is ready. I can eat chocolate chip cookies if I want until my dinner is ready! In all fairness, now that I have to eat the food that I slave over, I don’t want to ruin it by eating a snack first. I also don’t even buy chocolate chip cookies.
Despite that really long list of cool things about being an adult, the list is way longer of not cool things.
1. Instead of waking up at 7am to go school, I now have to wake up at 5am so that I can be clocked in before 7am. I also don’t come home at 3:30 anymore, but at 7pm. Or 11pm.
2. My mom doesn’t even make my breakfast or lunch anymore. I have to wake up extra early to make my own.
3. I do all the grocery shopping. Then I have to cook my own food. I’m not even a good cook, so sometimes the food isn’t even that good. But because I had to pay all that money for the food (know how much organic chicken is?!) and slaved over a hot stove to make it, I’m going to eat it even if I don’t like it!
4. I do all my laundry. Also, I do all of Jon’s laundry, which doesn’t make sense because he pays rent at a house with a washer and dryer. But I do it all anyway. This includes sorting, washing, folding, and putting it away. Yup.
5. I have free reign over my money, but I also do a job that I don’t love to get that money, and then Obama takes half of it to pay for the lazy people with no jobs that don’t try to get one (I’m okay paying some taxes to the hard working, unemployed people) and then most of the rest of that money goes to things like my mortgage, groceries, gas, school, things for my house, cat litter, etc.
6. There really is no time. I’m a single 27 year old. I live alone (or with a non-live in boyfriend who is here every single day). I don’t have kids. My house is only 1100 square feet. But I just never have time. Ever. At least when I was a kid, I had hours upon hours to just spend sitting at the computer or to annoy my brother and sister.
7. My weekends aren’t really “free time” anymore. At least when I was 11, I had my entire weekend free except for maybe a few minutes of homework. Between yesterday and today, I spent a good 8 hours on cooking, cleaning, and grocery shopping. That’s a normal person’s day at work, or a day in middle school.
This list is getting too depressing. But really, the moral of my story here, is that if I ever do happen to pop out some babies, I will sure as hell make sure they appreciate how easy it is to be a child. Either that, or I will teach them how to clean a house as soon as they can walk, so that my adult life can be more enjoyable and my kids really will feel like they have it easy once they get out on their own. At least that way, all their hopes and dreams about how easy adult life will be can be halfway true.
I’m going to go ignore my lengthy to do list to enjoy watching Orange is the New Black with my cats and my man. Maybe tomorrow I’ll cross something else off the list.
at20something 
It’s funny – I was kind of the opposite. When I was a kid I had this fear that being an adult meant crushing levels of responsibility and pressure and no free time. Now that I’m here it’s not as bad as I feared. I do feel your pain on some of these (although I have rather different views on point 5, but I’m guessing this isn’t really to be a politics blog.)
But I think there are ways to lighten the load. I believe in the 75%/25% rule, especially for cleaning: you can get the job 75% done in the first 25% of the time, and then the other 75% of the time is to get the more tricky 25% remaining stuff done. So generally I only put in that first 25% and then I’m satisfied with it being 75% done. Also I really value my free time, so I ask myself: is that complicated meal really worth an hour that could be spent doing something fun? Often for me it’s not.
Having said that, I must admit that my girlfriend does do some of the cooking (but she likes more complicated things) and more cleaning (mainly because her cats trash the place) – I wonder if Jon might be coaxed to chip in a bit more? But I can see how that would be a complicated issue!
Jon has been chipping in MUCH better than when we lived together the first time around. He does everything I ask him to do and he cleans the kitchen sometimes without being asked. He does the trash always. But it is MY house and he doesn’t live here, so I try not to be too overbearing.
I wish I had dreaded becoming an adult. My adulthood would seem so much better!!!