don't grow up. it's a trap.
Adulthood is sold like a luxury upgrade: more choices, more independence, your name on the deed. What they don’t print on the box is the fine-print subscription, rent, taxes, interest, insurance, “circles back Monday,” and the creeping feeling that your calendar owns you. Somewhere between “you can be anything” and “please see attached invoice,” the freedom we were promised gets repackaged as responsibility with better branding.
The trap isn’t just bills. It’s the story. The script says: optimize, advance, accumulate; smile through the grind because “that’s life.” We trade recess for networking, curiosity for credentials, play for productivity. Even our hobbies become “side hustles,” measured in output instead of joy. You start living like an inbox always something to process, never done.
And innocence? It doesn’t vanish it’s cautioned out of us. Wonder becomes risk management. Dreaming becomes “be realistic.” We learn to ask permission from invisible committees: will this look professional, sensible, adult? Childhood had boundaries; adulthood has invisible fences.
Yet the benefits are real: autonomy, resources, competence, the power to build a life. The problem is mistaking default adulthood for designed adulthood. Default adulthood is obligations on autoplay. Designed adulthood is consent choosing which burdens you’ll carry because they serve a life you actually want.
The trap isn’t just bills. It’s the story. The script says: optimize, advance, accumulate; smile through the grind because “that’s life.” We trade recess for networking, curiosity for credentials, play for productivity. Even our hobbies become “side hustles,” measured in output instead of joy. You start living like an inbox always something to process, never done.
And innocence? It doesn’t vanish it’s cautioned out of us. Wonder becomes risk management. Dreaming becomes “be realistic.” We learn to ask permission from invisible committees: will this look professional, sensible, adult? Childhood had boundaries; adulthood has invisible fences.
Yet the benefits are real: autonomy, resources, competence, the power to build a life. The problem is mistaking default adulthood for designed adulthood. Default adulthood is obligations on autoplay. Designed adulthood is consent choosing which burdens you’ll carry because they serve a life you actually want.
