With age comes experience and wisdom, or at the very least, the wisdom of experience. So it seems that life should get EASIER and SIMPLER as you age, no? I’m not talking about, you know, Facing One’s Mortality (I originally typed this as “Morality” which is something else entirely) or Parenting or Marriage anything massive like that.
But there are some things that just seem like they should accompany adulthood – like the ability to eat ice cream whenever you want to. Like, I just expected – as a child who got terrible nerves any time I had to speak/perform/sing in front of a group – that it would get if not easy then at least easier to talk in front of a group when I became a Grown Up. So there are some things that I REALLY wish were easier now that I’m in my mid thirties – which seems like a pretty GROWN UP age, from any angle.
- Confrontation
- Understanding complex forms, like my taxes or those questionnaires you have to fill out when you first go to the doctor (When they ask “do you experience headaches” do they mean, like, ever? If I check no, am I lying?)
- Wanting to read/being able to read/understanding the “I have read and understand this license agreement” things whenever you buy a thing or download a new operating system
- Doing things in a timely manner
- Phone calls
- Putting on those paper gowns at the OB/GYN’s office
- Making friends
- Going to bed at a reasonable hour
- Tipping
- Folding the laundry after you have washed it
- Believing that no one is paying attention to you as closely as you think they are
- Finding pants that are a) cute and b) fit without c) wanting to die/commit murder while finding them
- Setting and enforcing boundaries that make YOU most comfortable
- Deciding what to have for dinner
- Making and eat the thing you decided to have for dinner
- Watching/reading the news
- Understanding politics
- Dealing with embarrassment/anger/hurt feelings without crying
- Flying on an airplane (this in particular has gotten MUCH WORSE with age)
- Feeling squeamish when working with raw chicken/beef/pork/fish
- Barf (both the barfing and the dealing with of others’ barf)
- Deciding to buy cards/gifts for people and then actually buying those gifts and then actually giving those gifts to the intended recipients
What are you still struggling with that you expected to be easier now that you are a grown up?