Being an adult sucks.
No, that’s not quite right. Being an adult is awesome. You have tons of freedom. You can spend money on all sorts of cool toys and games. You can do pretty much whatever you want with whomever you what. You get to make your own schedule. You get to eat whatever you want (ice cream!) whenever you want (breakfast!). And (if you’re lucky) homework is a thing of the past.
Being a responsible adult sucks.
Because these freedoms don’t come without a price. To have money, you need to work. Usually at a job. You have to pay rent, among other bills. All those cool things you want to do take time in addition to money, of which there is a finite amount. Oh, and don’t forget to eat, shop, clean, and sleep. Too often, doing what needs to get done leaves you precious little time for what you want to do.
I know I should consider myself lucky. Even though my retail job is largely unfulfilling, my schedule is set up such that I have large chunks of my afternoons free. If I was truly responsible and productive, I would use this time to better myself: looking for a better job, improving my skills, making progress on projects, writing, etc. I’ve got the whole apartment to myself until at least 6, no distractions or impediments.
But most of the time I end up not doing much of anything: surfing the Internet, playing video games, remembering at the last minute to write a daily post, etc. Sure, I could spend all morning on my feet and then come home to work on a website, but I think I’d go mad. To try to do too much without downtime feels too much like working a 12-hour work day when you start at 5am. The fact that I have to be up so early also means that I have to be asleep (not just in bed) ungodly early. And if I want to spend any time with my girlfriend? You know, when she’s just finished working a full day and wants to just relax (understandably so) for a bit? Well, that doesn’t leave much left of the evening.
I know this reeks of First World Problems. But I just needed to get the drama llama out of the stable and tool around for a bit. I don’t have a fix, nor is anyone else likely to. I guess I can take some solace in the fact that the benefits of being responsible outweigh the inconveniences. It’s just something we all have to deal with, whether we want to or not.