Getting Older - the to-do list
Aug. 22nd, 2010 09:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vcmwOne of the things that I have noticed, at least in our culture for people who didn't need to work for survival as adolescents (two HUUUUUUGE assumptions) is that there are some qualitative differences between the to-do lists of adolescence and of adulthood.
Basically, my impression is that the to-do list of at least early adolescence is finite - you can reach a point in a day/week/month/year when you have crossed off all your responsibilities.
And the to-do list of an adult is infinite. You make progress, but the nature of your responsibilities is that there will always be more.
I suppose it's possible that this is true of adolescence as well, but I don't recall it - I was aware of tons of things crashing down on me, but I usually didn't have the right to controle them and thus didn't have the responsibility of responding to them. I remember feeling that if I had bathed/cleaned the house/done my homework/applied to colleges/ gotten a job - then I was done until the next wave.
Whereas in adulthood I am able to have a voice in what happens next, but that means I must be engaged in the next-ness all the time - I can choose where I live but it is my responsibility to come up with rent money or mortgage money and to buy cleaners and to save for home repairs. I can go to the dentist or not go to the dentist but then I must budget the money and try to buy the dental insurance etc.
So it's not that the change is bad per se, because having the right to choose is pretty great. But it's still a big change.
Basically, my impression is that the to-do list of at least early adolescence is finite - you can reach a point in a day/week/month/year when you have crossed off all your responsibilities.
And the to-do list of an adult is infinite. You make progress, but the nature of your responsibilities is that there will always be more.
I suppose it's possible that this is true of adolescence as well, but I don't recall it - I was aware of tons of things crashing down on me, but I usually didn't have the right to controle them and thus didn't have the responsibility of responding to them. I remember feeling that if I had bathed/cleaned the house/done my homework/applied to colleges/ gotten a job - then I was done until the next wave.
Whereas in adulthood I am able to have a voice in what happens next, but that means I must be engaged in the next-ness all the time - I can choose where I live but it is my responsibility to come up with rent money or mortgage money and to buy cleaners and to save for home repairs. I can go to the dentist or not go to the dentist but then I must budget the money and try to buy the dental insurance etc.
So it's not that the change is bad per se, because having the right to choose is pretty great. But it's still a big change.
