As my Spring Break slowly comes to an end, I am very appreciative of the time off because it allowed me to rest and make plans for the future (more specifically, the summer and the upcoming fall). It also allowed me to make some realizations about where I am in my life.
I realized that living from paycheck to paycheck is not living at all; it’s surviving. It keeps the lights on, food in the fridge, gas in the car, needed clothes on your back, and a place to stay for another month. I spent my twenties nickel-and-diming from one job to another (and even two or three at once to make ends meet) and realized that those days need to become less and less if I have any hope of becoming the strong, independent woman that I want to be.
For that to happen, my skills need to be recognized by employers with full-time job opportunities. Therefore, marketing and creating exposure for those skills are paramount. So in a way, this blog is part of my marketing package. Freelancing is also another part. My dream is to become a writer and live (and work) in either New Orleans or New York City. Just throwing that out to the universe.
But “what I know for sure” is that making money does not insure “success” as an adult. Anyone can make money in many different ways – some legally but many illegally. A bi-weekly paycheck is the product; as an adult, one has to focus on the process that creates the product. What are you doing to get that paycheck? What OTHER skills and life experiences are you cultivating in the process?
These kinds of qualities are not tangible objects to be counted like cash but nonetheless, they are more valuable than a thousand paychecks! Qualities like emotional maturity, responsibility,character, and integrity are just a few things that transform you from a kid working from job to job to an adult pursuing a lifelong career.
I’m not a kid anymore and if anyone claims to be an adult, those qualities need to become a priority because no employer wants a kid as a lifelong employee. Companies want adults that are more than just worker bees. They want people with those intangible qualities that can eventually become the Queen (or King) Bee.
In other words, what companies really want are leaders, people who do not wait for someone to say: “Did you do this?” or “Did you do that?” Companies have managers, but do you know the difference between a manager and a leader? The first one is assigned in his/her position. He/she has influences in the employees because of his authority in that position. On the other hand, a leader just comes out from a working group and his/her ability to influence in other people goes beyond the authority he/she has. I have always said that this new century is all about business, and until now, I have no doubt about it. To become a writer is an excellent idea because is like having an own business. However, there is another point that is mentioned in this post that is important too: “Making money does not insure success”. A person has to develop certain qualities if he/she wants to have a good job or wants to have an own business, a person has to develop certain qualities if he/she wants to be a leader.
i’ve written a couple of literature pieces but i second guess myself if it’s good or not
This is not a paragraph response. Please resend with a 3-5 sentence comment over the weekend.
I have had so many disatisfing jobs within my 40+ years in order to provide for my family. I agree, making money doesn’t make you grown, however, it does make you responsible, especially if others are depending on that paycheck. I believe that you should enjoy your job to the point that if you could, you would be happy doing it for free. As a matter of fact, the best job that I ever had is being a mom and I do it free of charge 24 hours a day. As the leader of my family, I have decided to return to college to develope the skills needed to obtain a career that I can enjoy just as much as being a mom.
I have worked for 25 years in the same job and found now that my children are grown, I felt that I was not appreciated for the job I did so well that that it was time to move on. I wished I had realized this many years ago. The money wasn’t the best but it did pay the bills and helped support the family. I too have returned to school to obtain a new skill and change careers to something that I would enjoy. Your life is so shortened when you are stressed out and finding something you truly enjoy and making money at it to support yourself and family makes for a much happier person and a happier person does live longer.
Sometimes people never grow up and just because you can earn money doesn’t mean that you are a responsible member of society. Growing up I was surrounded by family members who were spenders rather than savers. They now live on borrowed time between credit lenders. Battling this on my own front is difficult enough, but to see others battling this as well is disheartening. Society needs to re-teach and re-focus on the basic morals and vales that we so often idolize. Time to stop wishing and start doing.
~Rachel Lynn
Money doesn’t make you an “adult”. Just about anyone can go out and get a well-paying job that requires no basic skill or effort. It’s not the money, but the knowledge, the experience that makes you wise. We all start off somewhere small at one point or another but as we grow and mature it will lead to better opportunities and higher success.
When I saw the title of this post, I instantly gravitated towards it. Lately, I’ve noticed a lot of the people in my generation claiming to be “grown” just because they work a 9-5 job every other day and come home to their parent’s houses to do absolutely nothing of value. I have the biggest issue with it because I work 10 times as hard. I work from 7 pm to 7 am usually 4 times a week while attending school 5 days a week. Factoring all that in mind, I get maybe 2 or so days out of the week where I’ll get a full 8 hours of sleep. I once worked from 7 pm to 7 am, went home to shower and nap for 30 minutes, went to school for an hour and fifteen minutes, and went back to work from 11 am to 7 pm. THAT is tough, and I guarantee that it won’t be the last time I do it. I personally don’t claim to be grown by their definition because I do still live in my parent’s home while paying all my bills minus food and living expenses. At the same time, it’s always been enforced since childhood that I need to earn what I get. All things aside, success is more than just having a job. Being grown is being independent, and people don’t consider the non-physical values that come with that.
I’m not at that point in life where I’m forced to live paycheck to paycheck but I can only imagine how stressful that can be. I’ve witnessed my sister for years, even up until now, struggling to make ends meet and the toll it takes on her. Sometimes I see her go in her room, shut the door, and you won’t hear from her the entire day. When asked later as to why she was MIA, her response is, “I just needed sometime to analyze myself and my situation and how I’m going to change it because it becomes too much.”
I do agree that making money is not enough to call yourself an adult. However, I believe that being an adult is being able to take on responsibility. Not just developing life skills but using them in a responsible manner
This hits close to home. The last two years prior to moving back to this area i was supporting myself full-time because I HAD to. The entire time I received criticism from my parents, who weren’t willing to help. They told me how childish of me it was to waste my talents living paycheck to paycheck but it seemed like I had no other option to suck it up and keep trying to find a way to live my life responsibly.
I often wonder what the critera is for being an “adult”. I suppose that legally anyone is an adult after the age of 18, but I know many people who in my opinion are far from the maturity level of an adult by that age. From what I can tell being an “adult” is a mix of being responsible financially and emotionally, and being wise, which happens by making mistakes and learning from them along the way.
I agree that making money does not meant that a person is a grown up. What makes a person an adult is the actions they make and the things they say. Its the experience a person has and how that experience affects the decisions they make that make a person an adult.
–Sabrina Nemerow
Of course money doesn’t mean you’re an adult, I wouldn’t even know why anyone would begin to think money means you become an adult in the first place. Being an adult means you’ve have certainly past the border line between a child in their youthful, sometimes innocent, and even naive stage in life. An adult means you know how to handle yourself, you know how to take care of yourself, and you know and understand the world and how it works. An adult is more than just trivial things like the possession of money, a marriage, a car, a family – it’s much more than that, being an adult means freedom from that innocent stage in life.
- Antonio Congson, ENG 112-026W