There is this current way of thinking amongst people that being an adult is hard, or boring. They refer to it as ‘adulting’, and say such things as “I cant adult today” or “I need to find an adultier adult” or some other such nonsence.
This is a new phenomenon, and I place the blame squarely at the feet of participation trophies, “everyone’s a winner” and even school’s getting rid of award ceremonies because why celebrate being exceptional at something, right?
People have grown up in a world where their actions and consequences have never met and even live it different countries. So when it comes time to pull up their socks and do what needs doing, they then look for someone else to do it. They fear responsibility because they have never had it. Or when they do get, its in little drips and drabs and then its very quickly “mommy to the rescue”.
The current thinking is that kids all the way from kindy to university need to be coddled, and the act of growing these people up is now placed on the shoulders of “the real world”, their first “real” job, their employers. How many times have you heard “just wait till they get into the real world”? I don’t know about you, but when you hire a person, you don’t want to have to teach them on how to be responsible or how to grow up. You expect them to know what they know, ask for help when they don’t, but all-in-all just get on with it.
And thats whats missing – people getting on with it. There is this incapability of people to do so.
To just do what is in front of them.
To get on with it.
And because of it, we have companies strategizing about how to manage millennials and generation selfie as if they are a disaster to be planned for and managed.
Now, I am not saying the world hasn’t changed, and we don’t need to adapt to change, because we do. Global warming, threat of nuclear war, unstable politics and people calling you rude words on your Instagram profile are all things mine, and future, generations are going to have to deal with. Yet look around. When someone gets elected that you don’t like, you protest and burn things down. When a company refuses to kowtow to your ideals, suddenly its the worst thing in the world. When someone disagrees with you, its because they are nazi’s and racist and misogynistic… The first challenge to their beliefs, their ideals, is not because someone is different or has had different life experiences, its ,quite literally, because they are a monster.
Responsibility is something the older generations used to seek out, used to chase. Now its something the new generation actively hide from.
Failure is a better teacher than success. This has been said by many of the greatest people to walk the earth. Yet the world seems hell bent on making sure no failure, no matter how small, or how well deserved, is ever felt. And some failure is even rewarded.
Adulting is not hard, or something to put off and ignore. Its a joy, a gift. You get to decide how to live, what to do, where to hang that painting. You get to wear suits and go into meetings. You get to do stuff you don’t want to do but you have to, and you accept it. Its called responsibility. And its not going away.
Put on your big girl or big boy pants, and get on with it.
