"Adulting" is the most millennial word ever invented, and I hate it. We've turned basic life maintenance into some kind of achievement worthy of celebration. "Look at me, I did my laundry AND bought groceries in the same day! I'm adulting so hard!"

When Did Basic Survival Become an Achievement?

Previous generations didn't congratulate themselves for paying bills or cooking dinner. They just... did it. Because that's what you do when you're a human being who wants to continue existing.

But somehow we've turned the most basic aspects of independent living into a performance. We post pictures of our clean apartments like we've just climbed Everest.

The Real Problem

The real issue isn't that we're bad at "adulting"—it's that we were never taught how to do this stuff in the first place. School taught us about the Revolutionary War but not how to file taxes. We learned about photosynthesis but not how to budget.

A Modest Proposal

Let's stop calling it "adulting" and start calling it "living." Because that's what it is. You're not adulting when you make a doctor's appointment—you're taking care of yourself. You're not adulting when you clean your bathroom—you're maintaining basic hygiene standards.

We're not children playing dress-up in grown-up clothes. We're just people figuring it out as we go, same as everyone else.