Thoughts on Growing Up

It 'tis the season for graduations, and this year my nephew is graduating from high school. My sister-in-law created a memory book—"a surprise Book of Advice as he moves to the next phase of his life." What an interesting opportunity to reflect! This is what I came up with:

Sometime between when I became an adult and now, the word "adulting" was coined. My generation just called it "growing up." The local top-40 radio station uses "hashtag-adulting" to mean all of those necessary life details that now become your own responsibility. ("Hashtag" is something new, too, for what that's worth.)

Growing up is more than life necessities, though. This is an exciting phase of life that you've built up to—many more doors of possibilities are opening and now you get to pick which ones to go through. Pick carefully. Each door you go through starts to close off others. Pick many. Use this life stage to try many things to find what is fun and what is meaningful (and aim for both fun and meaningful). You are on a solid foundation, and I'm eager to see what you discover "adulting" means to you.