We Are Adults
People think my generation suffers from stunted emotional maturation. Many of us have not taken on the responsibilities that our parent’s generation had by the time they were our age. (Marriage, career, ownership of property, kids, etc) Further, many of us play video games. However, is that what makes an adult an adult tying yourself down with unpleasant, emotionally draining, time consuming things?
Monday night/Tuesday morning I realized what being an adult is all about and it had nothing to do with owning a house or kids.
1:30am Tuesday morning I was startled awake by some unknown entity. I was so freaked out I believe I screamed three times or I dreamt that I screamed three times. I thought there was a stranger in my room. In the dark I thought I saw a man sitting at the head of my bed, so I grabbed at something and threw it at his head. My desk lamp fell over. Apparently, there was no one sitting at the head of my bed. What troubled me was that I didn’t break the lamp. Yes, the part of me that would have had to pay to replace the lamp is glad it’s not broken, but the part of me that deludes myself into thinking I can defend myself against an assailant was not happy. If the lamp, or at least the bulb, didn’t break with my self defense action then clearly that same action would not have saved me from a person sitting on my bed.
Now, if a child or an emotionally immature person had experienced what I experienced Tuesday morning they would have crawled into bed with there mother and father. Or they would have called someone to come over and stay with them so they could get some sleep. But not me. I’m an adult. And as an adult I did the mature and rational thing. I picked up my lamp, turned it on, went over to my radio turned that on, and the proceeded to not sleep for the rest of the night. Now, a child would have not gone to work the next day because children don’t work anymore in this country (If they did perhaps we wouldn’t be loosing all those manufacturing jobs to Indonesian children.), but I went to work. And I went to work again today despite another evening of almost no sleep.
Emotionally stunted? I think not!
Monday night/Tuesday morning I realized what being an adult is all about and it had nothing to do with owning a house or kids.
1:30am Tuesday morning I was startled awake by some unknown entity. I was so freaked out I believe I screamed three times or I dreamt that I screamed three times. I thought there was a stranger in my room. In the dark I thought I saw a man sitting at the head of my bed, so I grabbed at something and threw it at his head. My desk lamp fell over. Apparently, there was no one sitting at the head of my bed. What troubled me was that I didn’t break the lamp. Yes, the part of me that would have had to pay to replace the lamp is glad it’s not broken, but the part of me that deludes myself into thinking I can defend myself against an assailant was not happy. If the lamp, or at least the bulb, didn’t break with my self defense action then clearly that same action would not have saved me from a person sitting on my bed.
Now, if a child or an emotionally immature person had experienced what I experienced Tuesday morning they would have crawled into bed with there mother and father. Or they would have called someone to come over and stay with them so they could get some sleep. But not me. I’m an adult. And as an adult I did the mature and rational thing. I picked up my lamp, turned it on, went over to my radio turned that on, and the proceeded to not sleep for the rest of the night. Now, a child would have not gone to work the next day because children don’t work anymore in this country (If they did perhaps we wouldn’t be loosing all those manufacturing jobs to Indonesian children.), but I went to work. And I went to work again today despite another evening of almost no sleep.
Emotionally stunted? I think not!
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