Adulting Awards: Here are the Adulting Awards You Have Most Definitely Earned

here is so much pressure to mature into a full-fledged adult, but when you do, no one seems to care. While you have put in the time and effort to learn how to be a self-sufficient, independent, and mature adult, you never get the recognition for it. Why? Because it’s expected of you.

Here at Adultist, we believe it’s not right that you aren’t getting the recognition you deserve for all your hard work paying off in becoming an adult. So, we put together the Adulting Awards, celebrating your progress as you transform into a full-fledged adult. However, don’t feel bad if you don’t win as many awards as you’d like. You can easily turn these awards into a list of goals to strive for!

Without further ado, Adultist proudly presents the Adulting Awards! And the nominees are… YOU!

Find out what Adulting Awards you’ve earned in the following categories:

• Food Expertise
• Professional Home Owner
• The Most Adulty Adult

Category Is: Food Expertise

You’ve been eating food your whole life, so you’re basically an expert.

Let’s be honest, one of the most intimidating parts of becoming an adult isn’t doing your taxes or adjusting to work life… It’s having to cook for yourself! You no longer have your parents to cook for you and no longer have a dining hall within walking distance. Unfortunately, food doesn’t just cook itself.

The categories are as follows…

You cooked a meal for yourself! And it wasn’t just boxed mac and cheese! Not to discredit those putting the effort into making boxed mac and cheese, but making a real meal for yourself is a huge step in the right direction of becoming an adult. It’s tempting to pick up that box of mac and cheese at the grocery store, but if you’ve taken the extra step to make a real meal, you deserve proper credit for that. Though, if you are in the boxed mac and cheese camp, there are dozens of quick, easy meals you can make for yourself.

You cooked a meal for yourself! And it was after a long day of work! Similar to the previous category, it is easy to choose the day you come home exhausted to be one of your take out nights. However, if you pushed through the exhaustion and made a meal for yourself, you deserve extra kudos for that! It’s easy to do on a day that you didn’t have to work, but you chose to push yourself more. Not only are you being rewarded with an Adulting Award, you were also rewarded with a delicious home cooked meal! You are way ahead of the adulting game on this one!

You brought your lunch to work! Many times it is very tempting to pick something up for lunch while you’re at work. Not only for ease, but also as an excuse to get out of the office. However, it’s not the best for your wallet. Plus, anything you bring will most likely be healthier than the take out you get. You definitely deserve extra credit if you’ve experimented with meal prepping! So, for those of you that have brought your lunch to work, congratulations!

You only got take out once for the week! One of the more advanced food related awards, you deserve a pat on the back for making it an entire week with only getting take out once! Especially difficult in college and right after college, it is so easy to order Grubhub or UberEats, but you did it! Not only should you be proud of yourself for earning this award, but your wallet is also very excited about this achievement.

You consumed an appropriate amount of caffeine! Now, this is a very flexible award and depends upon your history with caffeine intake. Everyone’s caffeine journey starts and ends at very different points. However, you should still be awarded with how far you have come on your caffeine journey. If you’re used to consuming three cups a day, but make it through the day on only two, you deserve a pat on the back for that! If you usually drink coffee but opted for tea, you also deserve recognition!

Category Is: Professional Home/Apartment/Room-at-Your-Parent's-House Owner

Many of the mundane tasks of being an adult take place within your home, and even these tasks deserve to be celebrated.

Moving into your own place is such a freeing and amazing feeling. Not to mention it’s taking a huge step in your adulting career. However, with the joy of living on your own, it comes with a lot of not so fun things.

You vacuumed! The little crumbs and hairs that barely cover your floor don’t bother you. Which is valid. However, something about being aware of them and leaving them there seems a bit irresponsible and non-adult. You could have shoved this feeling to the side, but you actually did something about it and vacuumed! That’s more than deserving of an Adulting Award.

You got all of your laundry done! And you actually folded it! Laundry piles up over and over again. Won’t it stop? Unfortunately, it’s not going to. However, you know deep down that you have to do something about it. Whether this is a weekly or bi-weekly occurrence for you, you deserve recognition for not allowing your dirty laundry to take over. And if you actually fold the laundry, you deserve another Adulting Award for that. Shoving your clothes into a draw works, but that adult feeling of opening a draw full of neatly folded socks is much more rewarding.

You cleaned your dishes right after eating! Whether you hand wash all of your dishes or have the luxury of a dishwasher, it’s tempting to just drop your plates in the sink and worry about them later. If you actually rinse your plate off and put it in the dishwasher, or fully clean your plate right after eating, it is something to be proud of! This Adulting Award is for you.

Category Is: The Most Adulty Adult

Basic adult tasks that still deserve the spotlight.

Here are some additional Adulting Awards we feel you deserve! Sleeping and driving related awards that you may not have realized you’ve earned.

You didn’t oversleep your alarm! It’s a lot harder than it looks. Especially when you were up late the night before trying to finish work for classes or your real adult job. This is a simple adulting award that you can receive almost everyday. Extra props to you if you wake up to an alarm on the weekends! You are truly going the extra adulting mile.

You skipped your afternoon nap! Naps can be extremely tempting, especially when you begin adulting and feel exhausted when getting home from work or being in classes all day. However, a simple cup of coffee or tea could give you enough of a boost to make it through your afternoon slump. And everytime you do, think about all the work you’re able to accomplish because of it! Even if you utilize the time as you time, it’s an accomplishment. Though, don’t forget sometimes it can be beneficial to take a nap!

You skipped your late night coffee and went to sleep early! Even if you don’t usually partake in a late night coffee or tea, just getting to bed earlier and spending fifteen less minutes on your phone is an accomplishment! Those fifteen minutes you didn’t spend on your phone were fifteen minutes of sleep that you got which you normally wouldn’t. While it may feel small in the moment, it is actually quite the accomplishment. How adult of you!

You filled your car up with gas before it was running on fumes! It is always so tempting to ignore the gaslight when it comes on. You still have a few gallons in your tank that are perfectly fine! While it may make sense for you financially to get use of every last drop of gas, it isn’t the best for your car. So, if you’ve filled your car up before you started running on fumes, this Adulting Award is for you!

You waited until after the person that cut you off passed you to flip them off! Clearly, the person that cut you off is not quite ready for adulting. Though, your patience with them shows how prepared you are for adulting. There’s nothing wrong with a little irritation when you have to deal with fools on the road. And it says a lot that you were willing to wait until after they passed you to flip them off.

You didn’t rearend the person in front of you that stopped for a barely yellow light! You were totally able to make that light if the person in front of you didn’t stop for the light that barely turned yellow! In fact, the light was barely red when you came to a stop. In all your rage you wish you could give the car in front of you a little love tap to prove a point. But you don’t. Because you’re an adult.

Clearly, being an adult is difficult. However, it’s the little victories that matter. We’d love to hear which Adulting Awards you think you’ve won, or if you think we’ve left out any important Adulting Awards you’ve earned!