What if I were to tell you there is no real transition into adulthood, no actual defining marker that means you are no longer a child?

The word “adulting” has been thrown around a lot recently in reference to being able to do things we perceive that an “adult” would be able to do. It is heard often around Emporia State and it was even part of the title of a recent workshop here on campus. What started as a joke on the internet became this thing we use to describe the act of being an adult.

There is no such thing as being an adult, for some reason society decided that the words we use to describe the biological stages of the human animal have some tangible meaning in reality. Being an adult is simply physically being fully matured biologically. There is no actual way of proving you are an adult beyond that other than what the society you are in has deemed an adult way to be.

The things we say are “adulting” only really cover being able to function in our society. Things like having a job, paying rent and taxes and budgeting your food instead of going on a destructive, friendship-shattering, cheeseball binge every time you deposit a check.

But I know children who can do this. Circumstances brought them to a point where they had to take on responsibilities they otherwise wouldn’t have to. And they did just fine, for the most part, and so will you.

The use of the fake verb “adulting” stems from the anxiety of being unsure whether or not we have come to the part of our lives where we are really functioning humans. Whether we actually fit the description of being a real person.

The thing is, there is no magical start button for life, it began the second you came into this world. It is always going on whether you choose to believe it or not.