Technically speaking, I am an adult. I wanted to be an adult from the time I was 10. It sounded amazing. It sounded like total freedom- want to go to the store at 8pm? Go ahead! Want to buy a new pair of jeans? It’s your hard earned money. Want to eat a packet of candy for dinner? Whose going to stop you?!

The reality of being an adult is far less glamorous (Don’t get me wrong- I ABSOLUTELY do those things and they are glorious.) For most of my “adult” life I have been in graduate school. I took a few years off between my bachelors and my masters but the number of year I spent in higher education equals the number of years I spent in grade school/middle school/high school (is that called lower education?). From my perspective, I think graduate school is a state of arrested development. You are learning a lot and doing a lot and responsible for a lot but you are still a student. BUT You aren’t paid like and adult or treated like a professional in the workplace and are effectively a non-adult in the eyes of greater society. Now, for the first time in over eight years, I am a professional again. An employee rather than a student.

Today, for the first time in my adult life, I bought furniture that is new. At Christmas, a relative made the comment to me, “I don’t really know what your style is. How are you planning on decorating?” I responded my laughing and explaining that for the past decade my “style” has been whatever is “free”. A sort of boho-grad-school chic if you will. (I will note here that this is a style overlooked by EVERY design magazine). So today, when I selected purchase on the very very fancy Ikea website (that was only mostly translated from Danish), I felt like there should have been more fanfare. Since there wasn’t, I am just going to be happy with the fact that I will have furniture in two weeks!