The age of the Kidult

I have spent the last 2.5 glorious days hanging out with my life coach and this jewelry artist I shall refer to as Coops.  Coops is so very funny and very real and does everything you shouldn't do but want to including end a slideshow lecture with a close up picture of his butt.  It was in his jeans, but still a huge shot of his butt.  And everyone knows that the last slide of an informative lecture generally is up the longest because there is always a Q&A at the end.  So I got very familiar with Coops butt.  

But what was most interesting about these past 2.5 days has not been just how incredibly talented and helpful this man is, but how I interacted with him and all the other adults.  I because of my job in the studio was the helper/handler/doer of all things needed but since I wasn't a student I got a lot more face time with Coops.  We hung out as equals and I have had dinner with people at least 30 years my senior for the last 3 days.  and I love it, I love every minute of it.  Being with them just makes me feel so happy about where I am in my life and then also puts a lot of pressure on me then also makes me question my future.  But I just stepped out of my brain and just enjoyed the ride.

I have become a tad bit obsessed with age.  Everyday I talk about how I am not an Adult.  I always like to remind the lifecoach that when he thinks I am an adult I am actually just a Kid.  I haven't given a valid argument as to why I am not an adult, but I just don't feel like an adult.  And over dinner since I am the butt of most jokes, which I am totally ok about my Lifecoach tells the table that he thinks it is crazy that I don't consider myself an  Adult.  And everyone agreed, but then this table of people all 50+ all said, I don't consider myself an adult either.  and they all looked at themselves in shock but not overly shocked.  And discussed how they haven't re-thought their adult status in the world since they were my age and they just feel like they are getting older but becoming an adult wasn't something they did.  But all agreed that the others were adults. It was an odd thing.  So Coops decided I was a Kidult.  A transitional, liminal some might call it, being.  One who isn't an adult, nor a child, but this in between stage that shares qualities of the two stages.  I looked the word up, it does exist but I don't like the meaning I found, it is described as an adult with childlike tastes.  Yes me and children like poptarts but we aren't just talking tastes here.  So then the table made me give examples of what makes them alien and me not, and I proceeded to talk of responsibilities and poptarts and the ability to fall flat on my face yet still have the chance to go home to mommy and daddy.  And then a funny thing happened.  They all felt that same way, that if something terrible could happen they could all return home and have a bed and food.  But not in the family will always support you way, in the I royally screwed up teenage way.  And I found that very interesting.  The one commonality was that none of these people had children.  They were all 50+ childrenless people.  And not having a "little creature" as one person referred to childen as, to take care of never made them feel the need to grow up.  

So what is growing up? it is just a stage in life? is it a feeling? what is it?  I guess I do see it as a product of a happening.  College use to be a marker, because well most people married right after college, but only the freaks do that now.  So buying real estate, is that it?  But so many people live their lives in apartments and never settle.  Having a baby, but that isn't a sure thing either.  And we all know my theory on adopting a tribe of children at 50 to make a baseball team.   

And now after much thought I have decided to be like the toys-r-us children and never to grow up, but instead remain a kidult for the rest of my life, and not look at it as a transitional stage but rather a sense of self and religion if I may.  I will ignore all the physical and chemical changes my body thinks will happen to it with age, I will continue to eat cake in heaps, have poptarts as snacks and just make friends who are older and older than me.  So at 50 I will hang out with 90 year olds. Remain the butt of the jokes but keep my youthful outlook.  That is until those youngsters want to play their music late or partake in any rambunctious behavior. But still work very hard at work and work just as hard to get the same satisfaction I got out of life when I was 9 getting a happy meal and ice cream with my dad.  There is something about that happiness that I am desperate to bottle and drink everyday.  So even if you don't consider yourselves kidults, you should still approach life with that same happiness and find old friends.  and part of that happiness must come from laughing hard, generally at yourself and having some sort of sweet on your face on a regular basis.