At What Point Did You Realize You Are An Adult?

If you spend time on social media platforms, you have probably come across “Adulting.” It is usually used in relation to the hardships that we didn’t think we would experience once we became adults. It could be about a job, relationship, or friendship. However, adulting topics also centre around viewing ourselves as people who haven’t accepted being adults.

While I was scrolling through Twitter, I came across a Tweet where a guy asked people when they realized they were growing old. Before I checked the responses, I remembered my own experience.

I boarded a bus heading to town one day, and I couldn’t find a seat, so I decided to stand and wait. I was holding a lot of luggage at the time, so when the bus started moving, I found it challenging to balance. As I tried my best not to hit people with my luggage, I heard a young woman talking to her son.

“Junior simama Aunty akae,” she said as she gathered her son’s things and tried to help him sit on her lap.

At first, I was so offended because when did I become Aunty? I have always been a child in my head.

That story also reminded me of a story a friend shared with me. He left his house to tell some kids to stop making noise because he was trying to work. When he turned to leave, one of the kids turned to her friends and said “Now you see why I wanted you guys to be quiet munasumbua wababa huku.” He stopped for a minute and then kept walking to hide his disbelief. I was so amused that I didn’t feel sad about my story.

When we were younger, we used to think that 20-year-olds were adults, and now we find it so hard to believe. It makes you realize how simple things were when you were younger. No matter how young you are, you will always seem older to someone else. Or some of the things you think are normal today are probably the things your parents did during their 20s.

It makes me think of parenting and how we usually feel like our parents are not as woke as we are. That we are going to do better and relate with our kids. However, we usually don’t factor in the thought that we are also different from the current generation. That by the time we become parents of teenagers or 20-year old’s things will have changed. Even so, there is no manual on when you should accept that you are an adult. As long as you are building your career and focusing on being a better human. You can be as young as you feel all through.

As I was going through the thread I came across some really good responses that were worth sharing.