Adulting; doing what you have to do, not what you want to do.

So where is the code red when you are child that says, don’t grown up. I have written posts like this before because I hate being adult and I have for years, so nothing new here. But I have come to terms with what being adult is.

Doing what you have to do, not what you want to do.

Here me out, because being adult doesn’t suck all the time (but it does most of the time). I think you just get to a point where what you are okay with what you have to do, or if you are lucky, you love what you do and you don’t feel as if it is a job, chore, requirement, etc. 

So I don’t want to clean my house on the weekends, I don’t want to go to work Monday-Friday, I don’t want to drop hundreds of dollars to fix my car, I don’t want to spend half of my pay check paying back my student loans…but I have to.

Driving into work this morning it hit me, I want to stay home with my dog every day, I want to take a sunny day during the week and hike some of my favorite trails, I want to spend more time with my friends, I want to have more time for myself..but I can’t because I am too busy doing the things I have to do.

I can’t quit my job to hike all the time. I can’t skip cleaning the house to hang out with my friends.  I can’t go on vacation like I would like to because I need new tires on my car – that is being an adult. 

When you are not an adult if you want to go hang out with your friends on a Saturday afternoon – you can, because your mom is at home cleaning the house and there will be dinner on the table when you get home. 

Your parents plan a whole vacation and all you have to do is show up and have fun. Being adult is sacrificing what you want to do for what you have to do. That, my friends, is a very very tough lesson to learn.

If you know anything about me, I am constantly having epiphanies, I know I am literally the most dramatic person in the world, but I have these moments of clarity, where suddenly I know what I want to do with my life.

This often happens with work – I have been job hopping for the past few years because I cannot find something that satisfies me (that is what she said, for all you pervs out there!) But honestly it’s the truth and it is because I keep finding jobs that I have to do – jobs that have benefits, a salary, etc. Think about it for a minute – if you could do any job in the world what would you do? There are a handful of you out there who would think about your current job and that is awesome for you. But a majority of us are doing our jobs because we have to not because we want to. Is this any way to live?

The problem is that when you first get out of college the idea of making money is so overpowering – for the past 20 something years you had to ask your parents for money if you wanted to do anything big. You don’t even pause for a second to think about what you want to do or what you are good at. You have this idea that once you get a job you will have the money to do whatever you want and at that time, that is all that matters. Welp, too bad,  all that money you make starts going to the things you have to pay for – student loans, rent, utilities, car payments, etc – sucks doesn’t it. When that moment happens…you’re an adult. You don’t have the time to even think about what you are good at, what do you enjoy doing, what would you do if money didn’t matter.  

All you can do is cry and grab a glass a wine cause you have 50+ years of this, so buckle up.

Cheers to Adulting...