I have become one of those women I hate!  Help!
-C.

Good gosh…I’m an adult.  I have all the symptoms:
-Civic duties like taxes, voting, retirement plans, and a job that pays SS for other people
-A plethora of personal commitments like THREE baby showers in a week and a half (side-note: I am very fond of all my friends and applaud their decisions to spawn, but three!  In less than two weeks!  Not too long ago it was friends getting married, now they’re multiplying!)
-A sudden and almost uncontrolable urge to keep my flat clean and presentable
-COOKING.  I hate cooking and somewhere between graduation now have started doing it voluntarily.  GAH!
-Grown-up friends, most of whom are married/graduated/working/some combination of the above
-In bed before midnight, usually at least 7 hours of sleep, and still bloody exhausted all the time

When did reality set in exactly?  More importantly, why wasn’t I informed?!  Already my just-barely-acquired lifestyle is starting to freak me out a bit, I’m not sure I’m cut out for this level of…mudanity! 

I rush from work, to the store, pick people up, drop them off, buy food, make food, clean, organize, do paperwork, schedule doctor’s appointments, connect with my significant other when our mutual work schedules allow, push other commitments ruthlessly aside to make time for friends (every Thursday = Girl Night, no exceptions…except…when there are exceptions…) and did I mention I’m a barely graduated, unmarried, childless 22 year old woman?!

Be aware, this is just a small panic attack brought on mostly by my inherent wanderlust and the fact that I have lived somewhere for over 4 years, registered to vote here, and generally have created a starter life.  I’m pretty sure I’ve started growing roots; they’re shallow, thank gosh, but they’re there.  Trouble is, I don’t think I want them to be here, per se.

There is only one explanation: I am having a minor reaction to Real Life.  I prescribe myself one trip home to England for the Christmas holiday, a tonic of one part perspective ( I will not be here forever), two parts gratitude (I’m am extremely lucky to be so secure so soon), and one part deeper commitment to freelancing (the better to get me out of here, my dear). 

Also, I’ve long held this particular theory that people who lead boring lives do so primarily by choice, and that boredom and ennui are entirely a product of the mind, not circumstances.  I’m used to a certain kind of lifestyle (highly mobile, free of emotional committments, blah blah), now I have to find excitement in different sorts of things…at least until I scratch up the money to support myself in the life which I used to partake in gratuitously.  See?!  Another symptom of adulthood!  I think it may be incurable…