adulthood is having the ‘we’ve got food at home’ chat with yourself

and also so much more

been thinking a lot about growing up lately. been thinking even more about how strange it is to publish a memoir-ish book when you’re only 26 and have been through so much, yet know so little about what life will actually end up being for you. been thinking about how my friends and I are all in this strange liminal mid-twenties time where we’re doing things that feel ‘grown up’ (paying bills, looking after family in hospital, getting promotions), and things that feel ‘grown down’ (sleepovers with chocolate instead of vodka, colouring in, watching old hilary duff movies just to feel something non-confronting.) I wanted to put into words how being an ‘adult’ feels in the year 2024, here’s where I ended up.

adulthood is:

• having the ‘we’ve got food at home’ chat with yourself

• siblings becoming friends that you don’t see that often

• buying a couch

• your parents in the passenger seat of your car

• your time no longer being solely yours

• bringing your own dish to a family gathering

• the first person you love getting sick

• eating alone at a restaurant and not being embarrassed about it

• paying a parking ticket

• limiting your coffee intake

• the first time you feel nostalgic

• looking after yourself when you’re sick

• work ruining your plans with the girls

• ‘treating yourself’ to a trip to the garden centre

• being able to buy whatever you want at the supermarket but only buying the essentials

• dealing with bugs yourself

• calling the doctors

• being kicked off the family phone plan

• waking up, the dishes aren’t done, and you actually care

• not at all what you thought it would be, but you love it all the same 𓆩♡𓆪