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To answer your question, I don't have a picture that I look back at and think of as my first "adult" picture. I had a transition period during college, I suppose, but even in my wedding picture I kind of feel like I look like a kid.
I guess I realized I was a grownup before I felt like a grownup. I just turned 40, and I think I've only felt actually grown up during the last maybe 3 years.
When people starting asking me things like "So how many children do you have?" or talked to me about neighborhoods and houses like I owned a home. I don't yet, for either, but I guess I look like I should.
Also, when I realized a lot of my friends have teenage kids, and that my friends are the age my parents were when I was their kids' age, and I knew then that those people were grownups. Therefore, we must be. Because there are teenagers there looking at us as such.
heh. I turn 39 next month, which Pips says is actually worse than turning 40, but that's one of those 'I'm not the youth demographic anymore,' milestones.
Owning a house definitely makes you feel grown up. Especially that moment when you realize that there's no one to call when something goes wrong since you're your own landlord. Especially since I was only making $8/hour when I bought my first house so I couldn't possibly afford to call a plumber/electrician/roofer/etc.
I think it was the first time I was with friends and their kids, and the kids were looking at us like "Why are you talking about that? Why would anyone want to spend time having the discussion you're having now?"
It made me think of all the times I looked at my parents while they were talking, and thought the same thing.
I still don't feel like an adult at times. On the other hand, I sometimes do feel old now.
My photo transitional moment was when I went from a gangly (who had a couple chubby phases), snaggle-toothed kid to what I considered to be a woman. I had my degree and a good job, was fit, had gotten my teeth fixed (braces at 24-25), was independent, had my own place and car and cats, had really good friends, traveled some, etc. I felt GREAT and it showed. I was 26.
I had always shied away from pictures, and one of my friends caught a great snap when I didn't expect it. That's when I went, "Wow, I grew up and survived all that crap." For contrast, there's also a great picture that lives on my friend's fridge of me, at the age of 26, from Memphis in May. I was sitting, with permission from the officer, on the trunk of a Memphis Police car.
Since then, I've had kids, gotten grey-haired (actually, that began at about 16, but kids seemed to make it roll right along), turned 30, survived more crap, turned 40, married a good guy, and intend to be one of those lovely elderly ladies. I might even have more cats some day.
In my head I'm still a kid, so sometimes when I pass reflective glass windows I still get a bit of a shock snapping me back to reality "you are not 19".
I figured out I was a adult when I no longer looked at other adults and thought they were different from me. (But I still don't know if it's "different from" or "different than.")
I still don't think I'm an adult, even though working for fifteen years at the same institution, having a kid and a mortgage, all those things point to the fact that I should feel like one. I'm certainly old enough.
It still hasn't clicked for me photo-wise, but I suppose that makes sense because I hate having my picture taken and so there's not too many of them around.
This XKCD pretty much summed up how I felt when I was at closing for my condo. The chairs at the lawyer's office were so high off the ground (and I couldn't discreetly find a button to fix it) that I spent all of closing with my feet dangling off the ground.
It freaks me out at times when people assume that I have grown-up opinions about stuff. Like my homie's friends at her sister's baby shower that were all 'aw, where's your baby?' (Dude, when did everyone start having babies? They're everywhere! Babies scare me.) Or when I'm at board meetings for my condo association and people take my opinion seriously. Having to do performance appraisals.
I've had old lady back (and other assorted bits) pain since high school, so that's not a good marker for me.
Adulthood scares the shit out of me. I'm not ready to be all responsible! I can barely handle taking care of myself!
I think one turning point was in my twenties. My grandparents were no longer able to care for themselves or manage in a lake effect winter. My dad had them moved to a condo not far from where he was in northern California. I came up to help them get unpacked and settled in and my dad and grandmother were really getting on each others nerves. I wisely set my dad out to go buy a hammer and some picture hooks, ostensibly to hang pictures, but mostly to get him out and give him a chance to cool off. This was the first time I had to be dad to my dad.
I'm with deborah, I translated my elementary school memos, permission slips and emergency forms for my mother. I'm the oldest, so we had to learn the American education system together.
It's your expression. Something about it is indeed very adult-like. Then again, I've seen kids with similarly adult-looking expressions, and adults with expressions that you'd normally associate with kids.
Expression aside, you look like a young'un to me and, as such, you should get off my lawn.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
