We completed high school, got accepted in a four-year college and graduated! Some of you have gone on to graduate school to obtain a higher level of education, and hopefully a fatter paycheck, while others have settled into the monotonous habit of working in the real world. Steady pay, troublesome commuting and rationed meal plans to afford anything that you don't find off the side of the road.
As young human beings, we aren't exactly thrust into this situation. I know for a fact that my high school teachers and college professors all spouted the horrors of corporate jobs, financial blunders and familial squabbles. The real world may not be a jungle anymore, but it is still a dangerous place. The young are blissfully unaware of its habitual secrets, the middle-aged are mentally riddled with paranoia, the elderly are near comatose as a result from everyday interaction. So as we cheerfully step out from the carefully crafted umbrella of safety our teachers and parents have woven for us and into the dismal fray of modern society and technology we are deemed Grown Up.
Personally, I think it is wrong to assume anyone is ever "Grown Up". Truly, what is it that makes a person mature? Is it the ability to man up and face the facts that yes, you are actually going to have to get up every morning, Mon-Fri, 9-5, every day until your grandchildren are out of school? I hope not. But right now, sitting at a desk in a building where that is the case, I don't feel Grown Up or mature or responsible. I feel like...
Yeah. That pretty much sums it up.
I know I'm not the only one out there who feels this way. If everyone loved working and drowning in paper and test results and procedures and legal copyrights and in-house editing manuals and conferences and remote desktopping from another state, then the world would be a nicer place. Sure, there would still be power outages and famines and droughts, but people would go to and from work with a smile.
Creeped out yet?
I've decided, and I'm sure people have noticed, that I don't want to grow up. Growing Up is for old people. I'm not old! I am in my early 20s and if I want another cookie I will take that cookie and eat it with so much enthusiasm that everyone will be jealous. I will get the blue-raspberry snow cone just for the fact that it WILL turn my mouth blue and whenever I smile people will think I devoured an entire village Smurfs. I will ask for ice cream after dinner on a Tuesday evening. It's a miracle I'm not diabetic.
And yes, I understand that the real world needs to be serious and there are some serious issues that require a delicate hand. But it is physically impossible for me to accept the idea of completely losing all the joy from my childhood that made me the person I am today. If corporate life makes people trade in fun for a paycheck, then count me out. The day that happens will be the day I start selling baked goods out of my car. Do you know how many cookies you can fit in a Honda Civic? We will find out!
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