WALL OF TEXT: Being an adult

 

WALL OF TEXT: BEING AN ADULT. It means you have to clean up your own puke. You must take care of yourself when you’re sick. You must drive yourself to the emergency room. You must go into debt to buy a car you don’t want to go to a job you wish you didn’t need. You must realize there are forces outside your control, and the longer you are under the influence of these forces, the more of yourself you lose. Above all it is a coming to terms with two fundamental facts: 1) You are not special, and 2) Your parents were not perfect. School shouldn’t teach us we’re special and destined for greatness. It should teach every single student that you are not the only one who can sing, who can act, who can write, who can play an instrument. Your work may stand out in class, but once you’re out there, you are competing with thousands—if not millions—of people who can do exactly the same thing you can do. There’s a very real chance you do not stand out no matter how hard you try. Your parents raised you the way they thought was best, and they may have thought they were telling you the truth, but there is a very real possibility they were wrong about everything. Being an adult means being angry at your parents for being wrong but you still can’t hate them because they never actually lied to you. Perhaps we need to return to telling our children ghastly, horrific stories like Pinocchio instead of letting Disney sanitize our brains with wishing on stars. I suppose as a kid I valued my imagination. I always had this feeling I was more imaginative than everyone else around me. Unsure where that perception came from, or if it was true, but I guarded it as my most valuable asset. Of late I realize a new truth: I am not the only one who has written an epic series. Lots and lots and lots of other people have done the same. The internet has created such a glut of content all of it has lost value. All we can do is release it and hope it finds someone. I’m grateful for every single person who has told me my work has reached them. In our internet age, that’s something that has actually increased in value. Being an adult means losing the stars in your eyes and realizing that may very well be as good as it gets.