Adulthood Becomes a Verb
Millennials—people born between about 1981 and 1995—gave us side parts, skinny jeans, and “adulting”. This term transformed adulthood into a verb, something you do (often with great effort) rather than something you simply are. Whether going to bed early, scheduling a dentist appointment, or buying a vacuum cleaner, describing your actions as “adulting” implies you are just role-playing as a grown-up. Consider with your team: is being an adult a specific feeling or just a collection of habits and responsibilities? When do you think you will feel like an adult?
Your great-grandfather at twenty-two might have had a wife, a baby, and ten years at the same mill. A twenty-two-year-old today posts 'finally booked a dentist appointment #adulting' — half proud, half joking that the whole grown-up thing still feels like a costume that doesn't quite fit.
Key concepts
- 'adulting' As Performance
- Turning 'adult' into a verb implies role-playing rather than being — to 'adult' is to consciously act out grown-up tasks, as if adulthood were a costume put on for chores.
- Feeling Vs. Doing
- The topic's core split: is adulthood an inner state — a sense of being grown — or simply the sum of outward actions like paying bills and holding a job, regardless of how you feel?
- Delayed Milestones
- Many millennials hit traditional markers — house, marriage, kids — later than their parents, if at all, so with the old signposts gone the feeling of being an adult gets harder to locate.
- Impostor Feelings
- 'Adulting' captures a common sense that everyone is secretly faking competence — naming basic responsibilities as achievements reveals how uncertain people feel about whether they truly qualify.
What to know
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Turning 'adult' into a verb quietly answers the topic's own question: it casts adulthood as something you perform rather than something you are — so the joke concedes that competence can be acted out, and even faked.
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