There is something, some dark secret, some ugly potion or irreversible growing mechanism that leads everyone to one of the scariest traps ever found in humanity: adulthood.
Eventually we all understand why Peter Pan didn’t want to grow up (taking only the literal yet not the more poetic message in it). Anyhow, nobody talks about how hard it is to become an adult, no one ever warns you “enough” or at least “on time”. I mean, as kids we want to be just like our role models that happen to be taller, stronger and with some kind of importance and relevance to our eyes. This same adult will probably be the one to ask the biggest question in existence:¿what do you want to be when you grow up?. How can I tell this adult now, we never stop growing? I can’t possibly have an honest and accurate answer.
If you would have asked me this question 15-20 years ago I would have probably said: a princess, an ice skater, a doctor, a lawyer, a president or an actress. If you ask the same question today I will only say one word: happy. I just wanted to come in here and say no one teaches you how to be an adult, especially when it comes to real life topics or problems.
School would be better off explaining how to “adult”. We all needed a mandatory course under the name: “Simplified Adulthood”. It would have been useful to know about finance, the job market, insurance policies, balancing personal and professional issues and basically how to survive the jungle of the adults. Because this advice comes rather late or never arrives, we tend to get busy living the moment, suffering through “the best decade of our lives”, surviving another week as a part of the job force or simply wandering around the world in the search of whatever is missing in our lives. We wander around searching for the classroom where “Simplified Adulthood” should have been imparted. Let the crash course begin.
For approximately 18 years of our lives everything has been organized to perfection by the system. When we graduate high school we are expected to decide what career we will pursue at an age where we can barely decide what to have for supper. The school system needs to talk a little more about one of the most important things in life: how to find purpose. This purpose is called vocation.
Every single one of us needs to find a calling, a spark or a passion that can allow us to cultivate happiness. We will spend approximately 40 years of our lives in the job market, so it should be a priority to find a vocation that can become a career. Working can be demanding and tough, so it would have been helpful to know how to find purpose in a job.
I have personally experienced a vocational crisis over the last years and have come to the conclusion that art and culture are the closest thing to finding purpose. Don´t be afraid to pivot, don´t be afraid to switch careers in college and know the only person you should be accountable to when it comes to vocation is yourself. I haven´t found a solution to this issue yet… Topic shall be discussed in another session. Moving on…
Ladies and gentlemen, there is just one constant in adulthood. Regardless of your name, job title or personal endeavors all roads lead to an Excel spreadsheet.bPlease do yourself a big favor and take at least one course in this subject matter during your young adulthood and when you have kids: start them young. You will be using spreadsheets for work, budgets, personal trip organizations and an uncountable amount of subject matters in life. For instance, I am a writer by vocation, a communicator by choice and yet I use tables almost every single day.
Let’s say I am the kind of person that tries to solve life one spreadsheet at a time. It has so many formulas I believe it can solve many pressant issues every now and then. If your vocation is in Excel, honey you are ready to conquer the world! But if you are like me, an artsy kid, please take some of your time to learn about
It is finally time for us to acknowledge that money is paper, paper does come from trees but, money won’t fall by the force of gravity just like a famous apple into your hands. Also we shouldn´t depend economically on our parents our whole lives if we have no underlying condition that could affect our system.
Okay kids listen up, we all need stuff, let it be food, housing, transportation, clothing and other less imperative things such as entertainment and luxuries. Please, as soon as you get your first paycheck, set an amount to go into a savings account. You never know when you will need emergency money to solve a crisis or a problem.
Now if we go deeper into the banking system, remember debit and credit cards are plastic but they are a double edge sword you need to learn how to handle. Remember debit means it comes straight out of your imaginary pocket called bank account and credit means the plastic can make purchases that you then have to pay back with your own money. Credit cards are not toys, they are not extra money and they are definitely not fool around with. Eventually when you get into a more advanced level of adulting, having a good credit score will make you qualify for complicated yet easily understandable stuff like loans.
So topics revised: savings, bank accounts, debit cards, credit cards and an invitation to further read about credit scores and loans. Carrying on with the lecture…
Yes we are young, yes we have no need of unnecessary medication and hopefully have no complicated conditions at the time, but you better be getting a health insurance policy. Remember, health insurance policy, not having the perfect screen shot to hold as leverage for any practical matters. Eventually we all get sick and can end up spending a ton of money in doctor’s appointment, medicines and related topics.
If you already have one, you have earned a star sticker in your forhead. Just remember to fill out your paper work correctly and on time to be able to use your benefits. And when you get into the job market ask your recruiter if your position includes one as a part of your benefits, that says a lot about the company you are going to choose to adult in.
As you might already know, apart from being the intern and CEO of this blog I also have a 9 to 5 (aka a place where I do corporate stuff and thankfully get remuneration for). So because I have “adulting” matters to attend to at work this week and wish to enjoy a rest day, these are the only 4 points of this crash course I could keep on imparting some other time.
Hmm… the job market seems like a relevant topic for next class. I recommend you listen to Dolly Parton´s 9 to 5 song to learn about the vibe of what having a job feels like.
For now I will go back to trying to be good at adulting.
Kind regards (a very adult email sign off),
-Andrea Lucía @meetmywords
MEET MY WORDS 
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