they say you become an adult when you get a job, and a home. children and a spouse. when you can feed yourself and clean your room without being asked. Adult hood is learning how to do taxes and graduating from school. when you learn how to make your own appointments and wright a check. becoming an adult is when you put away the teddy bear and take down the posters and make room for art that brings no joy and makes no since. but it makes you look more mature than that mushroom you drew in 10th grade. becoming an adult is learning how to boil pasta and not burning the toast. being an adult is killing the spider and having normal cut and colored hair.
but i think becoming an adult starts when the neosporin stops burning and you don't care about the burnt toast. becoming an adult is graduating from the corner bed to having it in the middle of the wall. becoming and adult is being proud enough of your art to frame it and hang it up. becoming an adult is moving out when you are ready, making money how ever you need to. sometimes its dropping out and becoming a stripper. sometimes its selling your art and songs you made in your darkest hours. drinking black coffee and drawing in your skin with ink to cover up the old paintings from silver paint brushes. seeing the spider and letting it live. being an adult is screaming in your car alone at 1 am and having milkshakes and fries with your partner when your done. being and adult is not giving enough shits to not express yourself.
its not just physically growing up. but mentally and emotionally. when the under cooked pasta and burnt toast no longer effects you. when working out is walking in the rain after crying. cooking bread at 4 am with the eggs from your own chickens and herbs from your own garden. filling the walls of your two bedroom apartment you share with the love of your life with posters stickers and art that you love. its not always hallmark husbands a fence with a golden doddle and 3 straight A kids. its not sitting on the terrace of your two story house drinking french press coffee listening to the bees as you do taxes in your silk pajamas. avocado toast and espresso is replaced by cigarettes and monster. silk pajamas by last weeks hoodie and sweet pants. the 7 am alarm by birds telling you its time to finally go to bed. being an adult isn't glamorous proposals on a privet island. its a bread twisty at 3 am while making french toast you saw on tik tok while blasting mcr and having the time of your life.
being an adult is no longer stay at home wives spending all day in makeup and heals just to have a quiet meal with meat loaf and peas and 6 children running around. being an adult is working at the drug store and selling your art on etcy, working at the local coffee shop and walking dogs. coming home to your 3 pet rats and leopard gecko and having a black coffee and take out pizza while talking about your day. being an adult is no longer takes and children and 3 story homes. its living out your own life how ever it may come and making the most of the worst.
so in short. fuck the 1900's ideals of house wives in red and white dotted aprons and home made meatloaf because that's not how life is anymore. you don't become an adult when you turn 18 or 21 when you have your first drink. you become an adult when you learn the world doesn't fucking care about what you think until you make it care. aprons replaced by mow-hocks and trauma. meatloaf by underage drinking and juuls. silent dinners with therapy appointments. so on and so forth.
