Being in your twenties there’s the running joke about learning how to adult in life. I hang out with kids all the time, so sometimes it feels like I’m lacking in the adult category. I have a job, pay my bills, ect. To me, that’s always been my contribution to the term “adulting.” When people start pointing out things you do that are somehow filed in the adult category, I’m always skeptical. Fun fact, that all changed this week!

Over the past five days I’ve created a list. In this list are milestones that most adults hit at some point. I never would have realized them without having a conversation about things old people do that are weird with an eight year-old.

Monday: All I feel that I do anymore is work and sleep. This is actually hilarious because I can barely sleep at night but napping in the middle of the day has become incredibly easy!

Tuesday: A few family friends are on vacation for a few weeks, so why are there other cars parked in their driveways! Yes, I’ve finally started paying more attention to the neighborhood. I feel like that old lady who sits in her window all day scoping out changes (except I can’t get home without passing their houses so it’s out of habit to look). I was also informed that these new cars just belong to their relatives.

Wednesday: After seeing a huge amount of hate being thrown around on places like Facebook, Twitter and even my Instagram lately, I decided to cut myself off for awhile. I don’t need to read the drama of other lives that I’m not involved with, and it’s incredibly frustrating watching some poor person trying to defend themselves because some troll won’t leave them alone. Not only that, my phone is glued to me most of the time and it doesn’t need to be. Now I can be that adult that shames people at dinner for being on their phones the whole time.

Thursday: So when I’m pretending to sleep, so are my dogs. They sleep most of the day actually, but at night time they’re not totally out until around 9:30. Thursday night they were in bed before 9:00 though and it was weird. It’s like tucking in my children and having time to myself? Because that’s what adults do apparently!

Friday: Two words: Wind storm. Roads being blocked by down trees or power lines? No problem, because somehow my sense of direction kicked in! Driving back to Vancouver from Beaverton would regularly take over an hour in the traffic caused by the weather we’re having, but today I rerouted myself and made it home in less than that! I’ve actually become pretty good at dodging traffic in general, not just today. Who needs interstates when the back roads got me covered!

It’s only been five days of concluding that I can indeed adult in ways I didn’t realize. Some of these “milestones” aren’t a big deal, but at least I’m confident in it! I’ve been told that I have an old soul, but I still dig Saturday morning cartoons like any other child of my generation. The parents of the children I teach tell me that I have a huge amount of patience, I consider it a virtue though. Then there’s things like my Apples to Apples cards that always tell me I’m a heartless European (literally every game). Who do I even believe anymore!

The moral to this is that now I have minimal things that I can point out to people who only see me as some 90’s baby. I’m not perfect at adulting and don’t always want to, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t! In the words of the dear Walt Disney, growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional.