Adulthood Hurts
Adulthood hurts.
You guys might remember my blog Love Hurts, a short on breakup and healing (if not please check out that article too). This blog is not part of that but quite similar as both of them hurt equally.
This is not a story of my life or somebody; rather it is more a kind of reality check for people in their last period of teenage or just ending their college life. I don’t know about the people in the West but here in Asia Adulthood comes up with a reminder of ‘wake up, now you are on your own’.
At the critical age of 25, if you are a man either you earing amazing or you are a disappointment to your parents. On the other hand, if you are a woman, either you are married, living happily ever after or you are going on blind dates every weekend. For many of my readers, this may sound funny but yeah this is how we were trained, and this is the period of adulthood and this hurts.
Asian parenting never stops, even though they are on a deathbed. According to me, Asian parents are more involved in their offspring’s lives than their own, doesn’t matter if the kid is 7 or 27. Last weekend in Café I heard a bunch of girls discussing their lives and they are the reason I am writing this article today. their story was complex, funny and inspiring, and hurtful ( I know that’s a lot of emotion in one go but it’s true). Ist one explained that recently she got a job at a multinational company, during her job celebration with her parents the first thing that popped up in her mother’s mind was marriage. The first suggestion from her mother was to get married to a guy who has more annual packages than her and now she is not able to convince her mother that there are more important things in her life rather than marrying a rich guy. I believe that’s the problem with most of the Asian parents.
My second explained that she is wholeheartedly ready for an arranged marriage but there are no good men in the market. Good men (more specifically rich) wanted either a 22-year-old fresh pass out or they are marrying their girlfriends. Her story made me feel old.
I know showing interest in the unknown’s life is wrong but what to do when their life sounds way more interesting than mine? These girls made me curious about my future scope and I am not talking about marriage but rather about adulthood. Growing up should be fun with responsibilities, but their stories complexed my idea of Adulthood.
Loving someone, getting a job, and living independently of my parents, that was my idea of adulthood. But all of these expectations cost something. Loving someone is an end and the means to this are a lot of heartbreaks. Failure and hundreds of rejections are meant for your dream job, and living independently of your Asian parent is still a dream for us Asian kids.
However, every heartbreak takes time to heal, but you’ll find someone who will love you forever. Maybe it begins with lots of rejection but every rejection will motivate you to work harder and every rejection will take you a step near to your future. Living independently is still a thing I figuring out, and once I have I’ll write a whole article about that. I always believed adulthood is a struggle but it is also a means to our dreams. All eyes in society are on us, people are ready to point out every single mistake we do but believe me end will justify all these.
Keep Smiling :)
