Things we thought made you an adult

After a long day of work, my dad would set his wallet on our kitchen table. I was amazed by both what was in it and how thick it was. The wallet was worn and sweat stained and looked the size of a small brick. He wasn’t the only one. My baseball coach would come to practice straight from work. He would take off his work boots and put his wallet inside. It looked as thick as one of the baseballs we were hitting.

It seemed everyone’s dad had a huge wallet full of everything they needed to carry with them. I just assumed that’s the way it was. You weren’t an adult, a real adult, until you had real life reasons to carry a thick wallet.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Oops, not me

Now that I’m an adult, I try my best to carry the smallest possible wallet. If I could get away with it, I’d get rid of all my credit cards, business cards, and cash. The smart phone has helped here immensely, but I still find that I carry too many cards on me.

I’ve long ago stopped carrying around photos of the kids in my wallet. I figure that’s what the phone is for. The same for various ID cards and other extras that aren’t all that important to me.

We were wrong!

I write all this because I’m amazed by the things we thought were cool. These were things we associated or linked to being an adult. Now, I care less about them as an adult and would give them up in a second. Here’s what I mean:

• When we were teenagers, “love” was kids in the hallway giving each other goo-goo eyes. It even included making out on “make out hill.” Love meanwhile as an adult is far from those things. I find love now has little to do with making goo-goo eyes. It has more to do with holding hands in the car. It also involves listening to your significant other talk about their crummy day.
• We thought being an adult was hanging out with the guys watching the “big game.” Now, it’s waiting for your car to be done at the mechanics. It’s also waiting for the kids to finish their basketball practice.
• We thought being an adult meant drinking beer. Now it’s drinking a large coffee with a double espresso shot to help avoid the late afternoon head-bobs.

• We thought it meant never having to do something we didn’t want. Now we understand that every life has “must do’s” that come with the job. You do these tasks out of the kindness of your heart to help someone you love.
• We thought a cool car was a Trans Am or Camaro racing up the street. Now I know that a cool car is one with enough room to haul the entire family. It should also carry our luggage without making us sit on top of each other.
• We thought being an adult meant money, vacations, status, and flash. Now we know that adult means being a person of substance.

Yes, this adulting thing is hard . . . but worth it.

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