Monday, February 19, 2007

Growing up sucks


Like most members of my generation, although I’m in my mid-20s, I really don’t feel like anything close to an adult. At best, I feel like I’m still stuck in some sort of arrested adolescence, only with more bills and no one to do my laundry. This stands in pretty sharp contrast to even my parents generation, many of whom were married and had children by now. While I’m certainly not clamoring for that to happen to me anytime soon, I can’t help but feel a little young for my age.

So instances when I’m forced to recognize the fact that I’m expected to be an adult fully participating in the world always hit a bit harder, I think.

Like right now for instance. As I write this, I’m feeling pretty sick. Not anything major; probably just a 24-hour flu at the most. But it couldn’t have come at a worse time. I’m in the middle of grading 50 tests, writing a paper due this Friday, working on a lit review for one project, and on top of everything trying to finalize a paper to send out for publication by the end of the week. Needless to say, I don’t have the time to be sick.

And isn’t that the sick irony of it all. Only a few scant years ago when I was in high school, I loved to get sick. Sure, you might feel kind of bad, but being sick meant you got to stay home from school, watch the Price is Right, and sleep all day in your jammies. But now that I’m an “adult” being sick only means that I have to do everything I was doing anyway, just now I have to do it with a sore throat and a headache.

It sucks, and I want my mommy. I’m only in my mid-20s and I’m already sick of being a grown up.

1 comment:

christopher uggen said...

hmmmm. i was sick on monday and now you've got it. so i feel even worse about my cold. howsitgo?
i feel stupid,
and contagious.