Growing Up

I have never felt so old as watching the college kids move in this weekend.  Listening to them make plans on the bus and watching the boxes disappear into buildings has made me realize; somewhere between graduation and now, three months later, I grew up.  Of course, I was considered “grown up” well before then, but I had never before labeled myself “adult.”  Until now.

I know how much debt I’m getting into.  Though I know it was a mistake, I was not fully aware of the loans I had taken out in order to help pay for college.  For the most part, I let my parents deal with the finances.  Call me spoiled if you want, but that’s the way it was.  I’m paying my own way now, and I am acutely aware of how much I’ll be paying off after graduation.

This means I’m getting thrifty.  I need to pick up some new work clothes for the fall since I’m woefully short on business attire and I’ll be doing so at the thrift store down the road.  I don’t go out to eat.  I try to minimize my expenses as much as possible.  Laundry gets washed in the tub.  Plastic bags are washed and reused.

What makes me feel so much older than the college kids though, is that 10:30 is bedtime now, not the time to go out.  It seems the older I get, the earlier I go to sleep.  Freshman year it was 2:00 at the earliest, sometimes much later.  By senior year, I was asleep at 12, sometimes earlier.  After running after preschoolers this summer, being asleep by 10:30 was late.

While waiting on the bus with the girls behind me making plans for later that night, I knew it was time to be the adult.  Get out of t-shirts and jeans, learn to talk on the phone, pay your own way.  Grow up.