My generation and the one right below it has become known recently for complaining about the hardships of “adulting.” You know, whenever we have to do something that is remotely connected to responsibility and maturity. It’s just too much for our sweet little coddled brains that have been raised on video games and Instagram filters.

But I’d just like to come right out and say that we’re not all like that in this millennial generation.

I, for one, am so glad to be the adult.

I’m no longer the child, dependent on her parents’ decisions and desires.

I’m no longer the teenager wanting the freedom to stay out late, but not wanting to take the trash out.

I’m no longer the college student, scrimping my pennies and needing to buy everything used.

I’m the adult now.

I own my own lawnmower and ironing board [those two as of the last month].

I wash the sheets and make the bed every morning – the bed that I bought.

I make the monthly paycheck, set the budget, pay the bills – and yes, I can afford to go out to eat and buy new clothes at long last.

I can travel if I want to, stay up late if I want to [although my bedtime is much earlier now than it has been in the past ten years!], and make whatever I want for dinner.

I own my own car – that’s finally a model not from two decades ago – and it’s my job to make sure it runs well and is kept clean.

I decide on the décor in my house, and it’s also my job to make sure it stays clean, even when life is busy and I’m exhausted.

I have a degree that I worked hard for, and I work in a career with a salary – a career that I long pictured being in, and which I love being a part of.

I’m the adult that I always dreamed of being when I was a little girl.

And guess what, world? It’s pretty stinkin’ great.

No, it’s not always easy. I don’t always love putting money aside for medical bills or for retirement, but that’s just the way life goes. Sometimes it seems terrifying to be the one in charge of making all your own decisions, but with freedom comes great responsibility.

And would you exchange that responsibility for having all your decisions made for you again?

That’s not adulthood. That’s a pitiable state of stunted childhood that wants the fun without the chores.

Several hundred years ago, adulthood started in your mid-teens, with the sobering weight of responsibilities laid on young shoulders that had no other choice to grow up quickly. Now, we’re prolonging the start of adulthood into the late twenties, and then complaining about it well into our thirties.

But this is reality. This is just real life, plain and simple. So we just need to man up and woman up and accept the more difficult parts of adulthood with the fun parts.

Let’s stop complaining about the “hardships” of being an adult and be happy that we’re mature, intelligent human beings (most of us) who are doing lovely things with our lives.

Let’s make being an adult look so great that kids and teenagers want to grow up to be responsible adults who do excellent things in the world as well.

Let’s stop thinking that we deserve to be entertained and pampered our whole lives, and accept the fact that the minimal “hardships” we encounter are nothing compared to what many in other countries are facing.

Let’s get excited about the things we can do as adults, and stop whining like the children we should have stopped being a decade or so ago.

This is life, beautiful life, given to us with a hundred golden moments to use for His glory, and not our own personal self-service. So let’s take advantage of them and pour our brief lives out with all we’ve got.

And when we get to the end of our adult lives, hopefully we’ll be able to look back and say that we haven’t wasted a moment of it, but lived it all for the glory of God. This would be the supreme accomplishment.

PS: Let’s also stop turning nouns into verbs while we’re at it.