I cancel my adult subscription effective immediately

I saw this great meme the other day:

It caused me to think about what it means to be an adult, and why so many want out.  Think about what it meant to be a child, or what people are probably referring to is that sweet spot between feeling like an adult (i.e. making your own decisions, wiping your own ass) it was a sense of freedom, getting up in the morning and having the freedom to play all day and know that everything needed to survive would be taken care of...  Like food, shelter, clothes.  

The simplicity of this life came down to the fact that everything that was really important probably would fit in your backpack!  How many of you dreamt of climbing out your window in the middle of the night with a few clothes and your favorite do-dad that reminded us of that thing, or that place, or person that was awesome and hit the road.  Food and shelter be damned!  There was nothing really stopping you, friends would let you couch surf a bit, and food, can't you just pick food off trees and stuff?  

I think the first pitfall to becoming an adult for most children is a car!  Yep, a car.  Think about it, whether you purchased it yourself, or your parents purchased it for you, a car is probably the first thing you owned that was really important and you could not throw in a backpack.  Sure you could drive away, just your car and you backpack, but soon the conversation dwindles out, what about gas, car payments, maintenance and you really know you just became an adult when you say the dirtiest adult word of all; 'INSURANCE'!  Yep, your simple and meagre existence went from living on a few hundred dollars a month, which you could probably get by working odd jobs here and there to A REAL JOB.

So you're on your own, you got a job and a car, you will need 'work clothes'.  They won't fit in a backpack, they need a place; probably, like a closet.  So now you need a closet, couch surfing is looking less likely.  If you put something in a closet at a friends house, you've moved in.  Where do you get a closet? oh yeah, you need a home, an apartment, now you have RENT.  Most of your time goes to work, you don't have time to go 'find' food', besides when you get off work you don't want to go work more, so restaurant it is; but wait, couldn't you save money by going to the grocery store?  Sure, where are you going to put all the food, in the refrigerator?  What refrigerator, oh the one you are going to buy, besides, the apartment came with an extra closet just for one.

So you buy a refrigerator, hopefully, you pay cash, nothing destroys the feeling of being a kid more than a loan.  Loans don't go away, they destroy freedom and can follow you for years.  At least if you buy a cheap POS refrigerator and pay cash you can still walk away anytime and get some of that youth back!.  But wait, now you actually need electricity (yes in this situation you had an apartment without electricity, you didn't own anything else why would you need it?) and that's a 'BILL' the second most dirty word in the adult language.  Now you are fully fledged adult, you can tell this because when you get up in the morning there is an overwhelming feeling to accomplish something, 

You have a place to live now, friends have probably started to mention that you 'need' furniture and stuff, maybe some nick nacks to put next to that do-dad that meant so much to you when you left. Maybe, you'd like to fix up your box, go buy some paint 'make it your own'.  The third dirty little adult word has now entered your language 'NEED' starts to take over.  Acquisition is now your new pass time and replaces that thing you did as a child, "play".  

Playing is the definition of not being an adult, 'Playing' is pure and requires nothing.  A child, will 'play' with an imaginary friend if there is nothing else to play with.  Have you ever seen a child at play that is not happy? I started writing this with the intent of conveying that 'stuff' is the problem, but I enjoy following the path that my mind lays out through the writing process. So it turns out stuff, is not the antithesis to childhood, the inability to 'play' is.  Maybe, if we need more time to play, we should get rid of some stuff?   Maybe, you just need to play with the great stuff you already have?  

Today, well, it's my work day, so far I've been 'playing' with this meme.  Maybe today I will play with my work?  Maybe, I will feel more childlike if I woke up with the idea of, I wonder what I can play with today?  Either way, I got to get going, I got some bills to play with.