My Dad has been in South Dakota for the past month. Just chillin’ and hanging with the Native Americans. You know, the usual.
No but for real, my Dad bought a trailer, hooked it up to the back of his Chevy Silverado and drove across the United States to South Dakota. He’s been living on a Native American Reserve, and helping the poorest of the poor. Did you know that indigenous tribes have the highest unemployment, poverty and alcoholism rates? Neither did I. Anyways, I guess the title of this post is something he noticed while spending time with people who practice a completely different culture than we do.
He’s right. If you think about it, there is literally no line between being a child and being an adult. And that’s not to say that there should be, but I think it’d make our lives a hell of a lot easier.
I was talking to my Dad last week about everything I’ve been doing with my life— interning at Washington Life, running Her Campus GWU, participating in recruitment as a Pi Rho Chi, studying for my four Public Health classes this semester, and working at Circa. I was explaining to him a certain situation that I had found myself in at the beginning of this semester:
[I was walking towards the server station in the back of the restaurant, when a guy walking out of the bathroom made eye contact with me. He stopped to say “hello” and then we got to talking. He is in a master’s program at GW (which one, I don’t remember), and was advising me to go to grad school right out of college. I told him that (a) I can’t afford it and (b) I need to do something different with my life. I need a job that will pay for my grad school. He told me this: “Go out and make friends, because I guarantee you- those will be the people you’ll be interviewing with for jobs after college. Your resumé means nothing. You can send someone a cover letter and resumé, but if they can’t put a face to your name, you are just as good as the next person. It’s about who you know”.]
Didn’t want to believe those last two sentences AT ALL, but they sounded pretty real coming out of his mouth. He’s right. I should make friends with the people who I will want to be working with.
So back on track to the child vs. adult thing…
I was explaining to my Dad that I can’t just make something of myself when I’m working under people who are more important than me. And he said “Honey, you are an adult now. Don’t let people treat you like a child just because you are younger than them. You can be friends with someone who is 45 or 50 or 60 years old”.
And he’s 100% right. I shouldn’t let people treat me like a child. I shouldn’t wait for orders. I shouldn’t have to ask permission. I should just go out and fight for and GET what I want. And I shouldn’t let people who are older than me get in the way. I shouldn’t be intimidated by them. Who knows? I could be more intelligent than them, but I’ll never know unless I take a shot at getting what I want.
You become an adult when you WANT to be one, and no one should try to tell you otherwise. Because you know what? Maybe you see the world in a way that someone older than you has never seen it. And that gives you an advantage. But that’s an entirely new blog topic that I will save for a later date.