Blooming with Grace

The real definition of “adulting” is now slowly becoming an understatement in this modern generation. Millennials overused the word “adulting” in exchange for maturity. Some of the trending hashtags: #Adulting, #AdultingIsHard, and #TiredOfBeingAnAdult are now everywhere in any of the social media in today’s generation. The common mistake of these hashtags are the people who used this are mostly teenagers ages 13–19 to cover up the harshness of life. She is guilty because she is one of the teenagers who use these hashtags in her daily life struggles.

It was a Saturday morning, one of her favourite day because it was the day where she could have a break from “school” though she has a graveyard shift at Mcdo. The sun has risen early and at exactly 8:00 A.M, the sun strikes to her bed and blinded her eyes. It was too early for her to get up, but she had no choice. She is the kind of girl who always wants to start her day productively.

“Yawns!” The first thing she does when she wakes up was to grab her phone, check her notifications (the usual routine of any teenagers). She started to get up, and do her routine in the morning — changed to gym clothes from wearing her favourite silky, white and pink, striped pajamas. Working out in the morning helps her stay fit and also to go throughout the day productively.

When she went down, she saw her parents preparing to leave for work. “Good morning!” She says in an excited tone.

“Good morning. We’re gonna go now, hon,” her mother says. “Your food is already on the table, help yourself. And also, please do your laundry and clean your room.” Her mother kisses her on her forehead and bids goodbye the same as her dad.

As her parents left, she got a text from her mom telling her to do errands that her parents cannot do on that day. She had to do grocery shopping for her grandmother, which she does not usually do, and pay some home bills. At the end of her mother’s text, it was telling her to be home before her curfew. Yes, at the age of 18, she still has a curfew; the usual Asian parenting.

She was not happy with what her mother asked her to do that day because she wants to spend the day pampering herself and watching her favourite series on Netflix before going to her graveyard shift. After reading her mother’s text message, she already updated her followers on twitter, and tweeted “running errands today,” *fake smile emoji*. She receives so many notifications from her friends who immediately liked her tweet, and commented “oh, ya girl is adulting.” and she just rolled her eyes in every comment she read.

After she finished eating, she went to her room — took a bath, and fix her bed. She had a hard time choosing her outfit, her daily struggle. Her phone buzzed and it was from her grandmother. She forgot that her grandmother needs groceries before lunchtime. So she quickly answered the call, “Hello, grama. Good morning!” She calls her grandmother a “grama”.

The first thing she heard from her grandmother was “Ria! Your mother told me that you are the one who is in charge of doing my groceries. I hope you haven’t forgotten.”

“Yes, grama. I know. I won’t forget it.” As she responds to her grandmother “I was actually about to leave now grama.”

“Okay, hija. be careful driving. bye.” And her grandma hangs up the phone.

Her name is Alexandria Curtis, the unica-hija of the family. She is a Filipino girl with a black-rounded eye, a long-black, shiny hair, and who knows 3 languages; Tagalog, English, and Spanish. She is a very generous daughter and always does whatever her parents tell her to do, even though sometimes disobeying her parents comes to her mind. Her parents might be very strict to her, but they are loving parents who treasure her like a sparkling-expensive-diamond. At the age of seven-years-old her parents taught her to be independent and not rely on other people and to always put her younger brother first.

***

She was almost done doing the grocery shopping for her grandmother, yet she received a message from her mother, asking if she can buy some vegetables, and meat for tonight’s dinner and, also, waffles for tomorrow’s breakfast. She got irritated reading her mom’s message, but as she has nothing to do but to follow her. While walking, looking for the things her mom was asking her to buy. She bumped into someone taller than her with a blonde-curly hair and a pink blush on, on her cheeks like an apple. “not again!” She just bumped into someone, while I was paying our bills, she uttered to herself. She has already thought that the lady she got bumped into was older than her so right away she apologized. However, she did not expect the lady would scream at her “you! Little girl, why aren’t you looking at your way?” even though it was not her fault, and she apologized again.

While waiting at the counter she was thinking of all the things she did for that day, like she has a checklist on her mind. Then she forgot that her younger brother was asking her to buy food. So after she pays for the groceries she bought. She first went to her grandmother’s house to drop the groceries. And, quickly drove to the nearest Japanese restaurant at Fraser St., lined up and buy her brother his favourite food, sushi.

The day she thought was going to be a rest for herself, turns out a “stressful” and “hassle” kind of a day. “I hate adulting, I hate responsibilities!” she uttered to self.

Before she went to work, she first wrote to her journal on how her day went.

August 3, 2019, 9:00 P.M.

Dear Self,

Today you survived adulting, but it is not yet the end because you still have to deal with those mean customers later, and fake a smile at them as if you are not killing them inside your head. Lol. I’m kidding. I’m thankful for those nice customers who treat me well. Putting so much effort and time for work is hard, but that is adulting, and I know all my hard work was gonna be worth it in the end; MONEY!

Well, today was a tough one though, being the oldest in the family is hard. I have to manage my time for myself and my family. #TiredOfBeingAnAdult

Though, I know this a responsibility that has been given to me to be a better woman, also, to help my mom and dad. A first step of paying back my parents.

To summarize, now, the generation she has been living today always complaints on simple things and uses the word “adulting” as a reason. But these teenagers are also grateful at the same time because they know that at their young age they are now open in any possibilities that they may encounter in the future. Being an adult has a lot of responsibilities, and somehow these teenagers are hoping to be a child again who only wants to play, and no responsibilities to take care of. Adulthood is like a trial and error, once you have done it wrong, you should be responsible for it and ready to face the consequences.

— Aynsley P.