By Sarah Barrientos | Reporter
To the baby-faced freshmen who might be reading this, this is not for you. You are allowed to use the word “adulting” in Snapchats as you do your laundry without anyone nagging you to, and for the inevitable Instagram post of you and your roommates smiling wide at your first grocery trip to the local H-E-B without your parents by your side. Your “Bigs” will all ooh and awe at how cute you are in the comment section, their praises followed by a dozen heart emojis.
No, this is a message for the fifth-year senior who considers not letting mold grow on their dirty dishes for once a win. This is for the junior who scheduled their own doctor’s appointment for the first time. This is for the graduate student who finally decided that buying a mop to clean their filthy apartment might be a worthwhile investment. “Haha,” they might think smugly to themselves as they type out what they believe to be a witty caption, “This will make me look so cool.”
No, you aren’t cool, and you aren’t adulting either –– you’re an adult. It’s time we face the facts; just like describing something as “on fleek,” adulting is yet another trend that needs to be retired as soon as possible.
Look, I get it, I’m a millennial too, and our ability to make verbs out of nouns is one of the many great shared traits of our generation. In all seriousness though, for the sake of our beloved Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we need to stop using the word adulting. I’m calling for an end to “How do I adult?” mugs and “Nope! Not adulting today!” graphic tank tops.
Because guess what? At age 20, we aren’t kids anymore. Being an adult isn’t an option. If we a commit a crime, the story The Lariat will publish will describe us as an “X-year-old adult.” So maybe we should stop pretending that acting like an adult is optional, because it isn’t. This self-imposed infantilization makes us look stupid and confirms everything older generations love to hate about us. Using the dreaded a-word makes it easy for the so-called “greatest generation” to write us off as lazy, unprepared “man-children” who can’t cope with the real world. It’s not true, and using the term devalues everything else that you’re probably working really hard at, like graduating from an amazing university.
Growing up might be scary to many of us, but pretending that we can turn the off-switch on aging is a really stupid coping method. Rather than pretend that we can off-set our age with a trendy slang word, maybe we should just learn to be adults. Infantilization is never cute, but it’s especially awful when you infantilize yourself.
Besides, you go to Baylor, you have better things to brag about than cooking yourself dinner.
