The True Mark of Adulthood

The past few days, I've been confined to my bed with an energy-draining fever that left me unable to do most things apart from read and Facetime with my mom.  It's given me a lot of time to reflect, however, and I've been left with one giant realization.  The mark of adulthood-- at least for me, at this moment-- isn't cooking for yourself, or doing laundry, or cleaning your apartment; it's getting sick and having to drag yourself tooth and nail through it, depending on your own force of will to get things done.

I never could've done it without my amazing friends, of course-- so many of them offered their help, and brought me soup and cough drops and their sympathies as well as missed homework assignments.  But for the first time in my life, I didn't have my mom here with me, checking in on me every half hour, constantly reminding me to keep drinking liquids and asking if I wanted anything else.  She did the best she could from half a world away, for which I am extremely grateful-- being trapped in bed without energy to get up is very lonely after a day or two, and having her to talk to was a blessing.

In the end, though, it all came down to me.  I was the one who had to take my temperature, take Advil, get tea and water, email all my professors and my chorus that I wasn't going to be there because I was in bed with a fever.  And, I have to say, laying in bed with a fever and less than no energy doesn't really make it easy to get up and make a cup of tea when you run out.  It's a lot easier to just stay in bed and bemoan your fate.

Eventually, though, after laying in bed for about a day, I realized bemoaning my fate wasn't really the best option.  That didn't mean I stopped bemoaning my fate-- I just did slightly more about it.  I managed to muster energy throughout the day to get out of bed and get more liquids and blew through three and a half books (though to be fair, I had been reading before I came to this revelation).

That's not to say I think I've stumbled upon the revelation of the True Mark of Adulthood.  It's just to say that I've stumbled upon another tiny step on the road towards becoming a Semi-Functioning Human, and though I felt like death for a few days while doing it, I've come to realize that I'm maybe more capable than I've been giving myself credit for.

Plus, I got a few days in bed to just lay and read, and who doesn't want that?

Katrina