Legitimate question. What do y’all think being an adult is supposed to be about?

I remember being a promising, emotionally repressed, intelligent child and feeling completely hopeless looking at the adults around me (except my language teachers and historians/librarians — they were bossed).

I remember thinking, I won’t be like them. Frankly, I think have some loser tendencies, but not nearly as much as the adults I encountered early in life.

As I age, I view being an adult to have three requirements;

1. Protecting children and vulnerable people — always. This means being a safe person, someone people feel like they can come to.
2. Having a healthy, regulated routine that allows you to contribute to a sustainable system in your community (education, community agriculture, healthcare, arts, etc).
3. Being able to articulate the political system you want to live under to ANYONE (regardless of identity, ability, and education level)

As I think back to Yalies who have graduated, I don’t know who is doing all of these. I mean I’m definitely not right now!

I just keep thinking about those homophobic memes that ask “who’s gonna be the boys/men?”

THAT IS NOT THE PRESSING QUESTION OF OUR TIME. THE QUESTION IS WHO’S GONNA BE THE ADULTS, WHO’S GONNA BE THE ELDERS?

My parents generation (baby boomers :P), got away with saying shit like — “no one is ever prepared to have children” or “I’m not old (they are 60)”. Tbh I still think my parents (especially my dad) are going to be good elders. But this resistance to aging, this inability to step into life’s shoes and own what you’re doing.