Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Restraint, or as most like to call it: Adulting

It's been quite some time since the last blog post. I should write more, that way I don't have to keep reminding people it's been a long time. To that effect I do want to say I believe you should save your words when it comes to the internet. In fact, I don't want to write if I don't have something to say and lately I've been so busy I haven't found a message. Nothing anybody hasn't already heard by now.

Mostly I want to relate to all my fellow Young Adults out there. It's funny to me how my generation has taken the idea of performing like a grown adult and turned it into a singular verb: Adulting. Adulting comes in many forms so it's hard to distinguish between Adulting and your everyday life. I like to think of Adulting as: all those things your parents did that you took for granted.

Adulting can be anything from buying your own groceries to paying your own bills. Adulting can be opening a credit line or doing your own taxes. Adulting can also encompass fixing up your house, visiting your doctor to get something checked out, or organizing your best friend's bachelor(ette) party. It's a whole lot of mundane and milquetoast things that daunt and intimidate us. 

The number one complaint I hear about my generation, the Millennials, is: we don't know how to function in basic life because our noses are always on our phones. I'm sure Baby Boomers thought Gen X'ers were crazy for Gangster Rap or artists like Marilyn Manson. Still, there's two parts to this complaint and I only want to address one today.

Millennials both fear and enjoy Adulting. Paying your own taxes for the first time feels rewarding (even if you gave more money than you got.) Not being able to change your own tire, that's embarrassing. I know it sounds implausible, but there are people who can't do their own laundry in the world I live in. Nuts right? Why didn't we learn these skills? How did people before us learn them? When I think about it the answer is: their parents taught them/they had to learn it.

I'll be the first to admit I don't understand how my car works. Even simple things like changing my own oil I can't do. That's embarrassing. So why aren't we learning these things? I think the answer feels uncomfortably simple: we would just pay somebody to do it. I'm not talking about a maid or a cook. I'm talking about a Plumber, an Electrician, an auto Mechanic. It's fair to say that these jobs are irreplaceable and nobody is capable of this kind of work unless they're well trained.

But basic jobs that don't require professionals still give my generation pause. We never learned these tricks or nobody taught us. As much as I'd like to blame the Baby Boomers for these nuisances I think the blame's to share. We live in a country based on an economy of services now so it's important to employ those services. It's just- the things that constitute being a mature adult feels so disembodied from my generation that it has it's own word. Adulting.

I don't offer many solutions. You can learn all the skills you need if you apply some study, a little critical thinking, and the internet. I just want to offer this memo: if you're going to criticize the generation for being particularly useless you might consider where that comes from.