ADULTING 101 (PT 2)

  Hello y’all, how has the month/week been? Good? Sure y’all remember my adulting post slightly over a year ago…if you don’t, click here, don’t be shy. My very good friend and I were talking a while back about how things seem to be moving so fast right before our eyes, you won’t believe it all started with an episode of fresh prince of bel air (we are dynamic like that). I don’t think any backstory can put it as aptly as these six words do: WE ARE ALL GETTING OLD, DAMMIT. Soooo, I’m back as you might have guessed already to share more of the realizations/struggles of adulting－whatever you decide to call it.

Independence: pseudo-independence in my case. Realizing that you are absolutely responsible for your actions and you have to call most of the shots can be at times tiring and on other days slightly overwhelming. If things don’t go as planned, you often time have to shoulder most of the consequences. Do you --they say-- and yup! You are totally responsible for “the you” you do.

Staying healthy: as kids, the highest most get frequently is malaria, in some fewer cases a minor surgery might be needed for an ailment and sometimes, prescription in terms of glasses or loss of hearing abilities. In more unfortunate cases, it could be a major surgery which occurs one in I don’t know how many. As one gets older, sugar levels, blood pressure, heart rates, cholesterol and a couple other medical lingo have to be monitored and considered under certain circumstances. I can no longer take candy floss with the innocence of a 7 year old anymore as I recognize it purely as sugar overload.
 Food portions are taken more seriously with efforts at balancing the constantly tipped scale in favour of carbs with proteins on the other end. As kids, one could play endlessly or till mama calls from fake sprints to hide and seek and every “weird” game we played as kids. As one “adults”, life tends to be less active in terms of physical activities, we order cabs or bikes from the comfort of our touchscreens and have little physical activities except by conscious efforts. Adulting has made me more conscious of body functions and health generally.

Healthy meals: in the light of the above, cooking is a hell of a chore and trying to find health conscious combinations is even more tasking an activity. It is even worse when trying to create a blend with 9-5 classes or work or if you are someone like me, 9-8 classes/activity outside of your room or home. On good days, cooking healthy meals is convenient on other days, the junk food judges me, leaving me feeling half guilty.

Living with others (non-family): I am counting down to the end of my second year in the hostel/dorms/whatever-you-call-it and I must say that I’m getting a hang of staying with non-family/initial strangers. Fortunately, I haven’t had the cause to stay with non-family members so far aside the dorms and I must say living with ‘strangers’ is hard and sometimes could be a culture shock kind of scenario with a hint of disgust. But then, I’ve realized that people are different, having different things that propel us and though it could be hard at times, I respect that. In all, adulting is making living with others a thing and I sure have learnt a thing or two from it.

Money (once again): even if you are yet to work fully for your money, the value hidden in that piece of paper hits you once in a while (if not everyday), I know it hits me. Keeping records of how I manage finances and budgeting have become one of the orders of my day. This has in turn increased my discipline and prudence to a good degree.

Random adulting kid,
'Mina.