Summer in California | Adulting 101

Also known as the electrifying and impassioned sequel to Winter in California. Just kidding, I hate sequels.

I'm trying this new thing called adding memes to my posts. Thoughts?

But anyway, the summer of 2017 is the summer of adulting. It's the summer of living in a subleased apartment, providing food for myself (and failing so far), doing my own laundry, paying my own bills, depositing my own checks, working a part-time job, having a 10-6 internship, commuting to said internship, and many, many more fun activities. I use fun sarcastically, if you couldn't tell. Because yes, real life is tough.

According to the impeccably accurate Urban Dictionary, "adulting" is a term used exclusively by "immature 20-somethings" who are "proud of themselves for paying a bill" and "adult less than 50% of the time." Not gonna lie, this is accurate. You see, I will be 21 years old in less than two weeks, and I don't feel like an adult. I'm not an adult. I can't cook anything besides pasta and I can't iron my own clothes. I don't even own an iron. I own a steamer, and the last time I used that, I melted my closet door . And yes, I know that is nothing to be proud of.

And you know what else I know? That from now on, this is my reality. My reality is the process of shifting from adulting to becoming, you know, an actual adult. And it's terrifying in every sense of the word. And I would love to stop this process somehow, but I can't. It's normal, everyone goes through it, and since this is just how life is, I might as well go with the flow.

And step number one is recognizing that summer is no longer about freedom. It's no longer about frolicking on the beach without a care in the world and dancing around at music festivals wearing standard white girl flower crowns. I mean, yes, there's time for that, too. But there's also the w-word. No, not waffles. Work. But waffles do sound great right now.

This summer, I've started working. Three days a week, I work a 4-hour phone shift at the University Events front desk. It's not too bad, as I spend most of it reading books on Kindle and writing blog posts such as this one right now. I've also been cart trained, meaning that I get to drive around campus in a golf cart and feel very important. Oh, and did I mention that I get paid for it?

The other two days I spend interning at a small production company in West Hollywood. My commute is about an hour and I take two metro lines and a bus, which is no fun, but at least it makes me nostalgic of the good old days when I used public transportation every day and Uber was just a Twitter app for BlackBerries. Also, I get to work on a fancy production lot in a really nice area, and the company produces exactly the type of content I'm interested in: character-driven independent films.  The job itself, well... It's the typical intern job of book and script coverage, answering phones, and coloring in the scratches on old desks.

But you know, there are two ways to look at everything. Yes, I'm an unpaid intern in a tiny office an hour away from where I live, and yes, my job is boring to say the least. But, at the same time, as I was drinking my coffee at Starbucks before work the other day, I looked out the window and saw the Hollywood sign stretch out in front of me. I saw all the palm trees lining the streets. And as I confidently walked over to the production lot, with my coffee in one hand and laptop in the other, looking just like the professional I am not, I realized something. I've made it. I've made it. I'm working in the film industry. I'm working in Hollywood (OK to be fair, West Hollywood. And half of the Hollywood sign was hidden behind a palm tree, but minor details). I persevered against the odds, I've proven that I could make it, I've accomplished what I wanted, I did it all on my own, and now here I am.

And as shitty as adulting is, it's great.

***

I just thought that would be a prosaic end to the adulting chapter, but if you're curious as to what else I have planned for this summer, here's a brief list:

1) Going on a road trip to Big Sur with my best friend Emily!
2) Going to California Adventure for my 21st birthday!
3) Going to a rooftop/Cinespia film screening!
4) Visiting the ucla (SUCKS) campus, just for fun.
5) Getting a California driving license (I've really been putting this off, haven't I?)

So yeah, it's not a long list, but it is what it is. I'll also be summer RAing for high school kids, which I'm beyond excited for! I already miss being an RA like crazy. Plus, I'll get to live in a dorm for six weeks, which I believe will just be enough to have the dorm experience but also survive without major trauma.