Adulting can be both exhilarating and challenging, like embarking on an uncharted adventure. From bills to new and bigger responsibilities, it’s a journey that tests our resilience and shapes our character.
Here are two questions to ponder on this path:
What’s one tip or advice you wish you received before adulting started for you? You can also share your go-to strategy or tip that keeps you on track when life’s demands start piling up.
What’s one thing that you’ve already learned on your adulting journey that you would like to share with us? Reflect on your experiences and offer a nugget of wisdom to those who might be just starting their own adventure.
Friends, sometimes in life we may not have everything under control (and that’s totally okay!) but we have each other’s support! Let’s embrace the adventure of adulting together and learn from each other’s experiences!
I agree that adulting can be tough… especially given the pretty stark contrast from being hand-held in the previous stages of your life, it can feel scary to be thrown into a pool of uncertainty
1. I wished that someone had told me earlier that adulting doesn’t have to be “perfect”!
In society, I think we tend to put our best selves forward in person and online, which made me think that adulting means having a clear purpose and goal, and knowing who you are. For instance, this could mean that by a certain age, I should have a five-year plan and know what I need to do to meet the goals I have.
Sometimes it can be easy to get lost in social comparison, and there are still plenty of moments where I blame myself for having certain flaws, or making certain mistakes. However, having talked to some of my peers and adults older than myself), I’ve come to realise that everyone is on their own unique journey in life, and that it is perfectly ok to go at our own pace! oh and, mistakes are completely normal repeating these affirmations to myself through journaling helps to ground me amidst the busyness of life!
2. personally, I’ve learnt that sometimes it’s not about conquering a fear (e.g. fear of uncertainty/change), but about working with these fears!
Sometimes, even though there may be a certain expectation to be accustomed to certain things (e.g. meeting new people in your workplace), it is definitely ok to feel scared or uneasy when it happens. In times like these, I look back at what has helped me previously, and build on that with new coping strategies that I’ve been leveraging on in this period of my life.
Adulting isn’t the easiest, so it’s always comforting to know that there’s a community of people supporting one another in our respective journeys
Life is indeed scary and can be regretful but what can we do? Nothing but to live this life even though it is scary and unpredictable
One tip or advice I wish that I had received before adulting started for me was that in life having going into other paths other than what you had prepared yourself is okay and shouldn’t be seen as something to be regretful of
When I graduated from secondary school I believe that there was only one path that I should go into which is engineering because I’ve had prepared myself for that path for 2 years(I was in mechanical engineering in secondary school for sec 3 and 4) and I know that I wanted to go into engineering since I watched a drama when I was 12 or 13(or even younger because my dad is good at engineering stuff even though he stopped going to school when he’s primary 6 so I was pretty inspired by my dad) but life happens and so I am no longer in engineering
One thing that I’ve already learned on my adulting journey was to appreciate the time I’ve spend with people I’ve loved more
Because the time we spend on this earth may not be long and the times we’ve meet/spend time with people that has change our lives for the better may not be long, sometimes it’ll happen in one blink and suddenly you’re back to being strangers that has shared history at one point in your lifetime and maybe one of you may end up getting the burned burden end of remembering and carrying all of those precious memories and then longings when you no longer can remembers those blurry memories
Adulting is definitely challenging but perhaps it could be made easier if we tap into the power of collective wisdom , so here’s my contribution:
1. I wished I knew earlier that my personal worth is not tied to my work
After graduation, it might seem like the most natural thing to do - to define your worth based on how successful you are at work, since you spent most of your time there. However, not everyone would be lucky enough to work in a field that they’re passionate in. In that situation, it’s okay if we chose to redirect our attention to the time we spent outside of work. We don’t have to follow the natural progression and timeline at work, to be someone of worth. We can make impacts in many other aspects of our lives as well!
2. I’ve learnt that growth might look very differently for each individual
I came across this imagery to think of growth like plants. Aspens grow tall to reach the sun But dandelions grow deep, understanding themselves fully, so that if a misguided person tries to uproot them, they’d have to try really hard. && then there’s thyme and other creeping plants which spread themselves out so much that if you chop a part of it off, it roots wherever it can find dirt to root in. We know what kind of plant we are better than anyone else, we’re still growing even if we’re not moving upwards
What’s one tip or advice you wish you received before adulting started for you? You can also share your go-to strategy or tip that keeps you on track when life’s demands start piling up.
What’s one thing that you’ve already learned on your adulting journey that you would like to share with us? Reflect on your experiences and offer a nugget of wisdom to those who might be just starting their own adventure.
repeating these affirmations to myself through journaling helps to ground me amidst the busyness of life!
, so here’s my contribution:
But dandelions grow deep, understanding themselves fully, so that if a misguided person tries to uproot them, they’d have to try really hard. && then there’s thyme and other creeping plants which spread themselves out so much that if you chop a part of it off, it roots wherever it can find dirt to root in. We know what kind of plant we are better than anyone else, we’re still growing even if we’re not moving upwards