YA Outside the Lines

  This month, we’re writing about the misconceptions we had growing up about adulthood. When I was younger, I had, what I thought, was a pretty clear picture of what adulthood would look like. But I was wrong about quite a bit—not in the dramatic, “everything-I-believed-was-a-lie” kind of way. More in the quiet, surprising way that life has of teaching you things you couldn't have understood until you lived them.  Here are some things I got wrong:   1. Work Would Be the Enemy Growing up, watching my single mom struggle to make ends meet, I thought work, as an adult, would be something I dreaded—something I’d have to endure in exchange for a paycheck, the money of which would be spoken for as soon as it came in. And I had that to a point, as a young person. Once I’d turned double digits, I was working regular jobs. In summers, I worked full-time. During the school year, I juggled homework and work-work (about thirty hours per week). I didn’t enjoy this time, but I got thro...