How to Act Adult and My First Birthday Away
This past Wednesday, I turned 19, which please to try to squeeze too much out of me about that because I am still in shock. Just like every year before this, I have a little shock about being a year older, but this year… this year, I am 1 year closer to being 20. That\’s right in 363 days I will no longer be a teenager and that just kind of scares me but also excites me. It\’s just odd, especially now that I\’m living on my own out in this big world, but in the small community of Kent. It\’s just all so much to process. Anyway, in light of my birthday I thought I\’d share the most adult things I\’ve done recently because we all want to win at #adulting!
1. I applied (and received) my away voter ballot Yes, I am among those who are afraid/believe that America is slowly falling apart. I feel like there has been more of a push this year than anything to try and get people to vote (this may just be because they push for it so much on college campuses), but it is SO important. I grew up being constantly reminded of the importance of this right, also my maternal grandfather was in the Navy in WWII, and he greatly enforced it in his house as well. Go Vote!
2. I Flew by Myself If I\’m being honest, I started doing this by myself this past summer, but it\’s still so weird that I\’m old enough to fly by myself and now entirely responsible for myself.
3. I got Screened for Depression Yesterday, Kent provided that opportunity for mental screening on National Depression Screening Day. While they did have Flashperks available for participants, I went just see if they told me anything different than I already knew (side note: they didn\’t), but also, it\’s so important that we take care of our mental health. And, as an adult, I need to take care of myself.
4. I Follow the News It\’s so important to pay attention to what\’s going on in the world, though it\’s so easy to block everything out and live in a bubble. Personally I follow, Minute with Mads (on Instagram) because not only does she explain things, but she also tries to give all her information without bias and give you the most important events in the headlines. On Snapchat, I also follow and Stay Tuned and the New York Times (and any other news outlet that pops up – it\’s important to get multiple views!). In addition I actually recently got a free subscription to The New York Times. I also renewed my subscription to Vogue, but that\’s irrelevant.
5. I (try to) Shop Responsibly Generally, come October I try to stop shopping for myself because it\’s my birthday and Christmas is coming so I shouldn\’t be treating myself as much. But with my birthday comes plenty of opportunities of birthday coupons and such so I\’ve been using some of these coupons/personal sales to get Christmas presents for my family and friends. I mean generally I only shop during sales or in the sale section anyway, but ya know…
That\’s all I got for being an adult, but for my birthday I got so many sweets! While I had previously celebrated my birthday with my family in Louisiana, here in Kent I got many birthday wishes, my roommate bought me my favorite candy, I got a little box of candy from the ramen place in the HUB and I went to my first Drag Show (another on-campus perk)! I wore an 80s-style jacket that I thrifted last weekend during the day and then I dressed up a bit for the drag show – it was so good to be in heels again! It was weird being away from my family, but it was a nice day.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
– Jacquelyn
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