I am a "real person" now?!?

It's brushed off as an inside joke of sorts, but what I was before I recently landed my full-time job and had no mandatory schooling left with student loan payments breathing down my neck? A not real person? A non-adult?

'Cause I'm a freakin' "real person" now. Whaaaa?!?!?!?!?!!!!?!???!?????!!!!

And for those who are just tuning in going "Wait, you got a new job yay?" then you are one of the last to know because I've been mouthing off about the fantastical fact that I have a fancy-real-person job since the moment I received the offer in my inbox a few weeks ago. (It was the Wednesday of Mandy's Official Best Week Ever, the week before Valentines Day and will forever been burned into my memory.) It's the job title of my 5 year plan (you may only address me as Ms. Creative Director of Awesome and nothing else, but not really), the pay is spectacular, the hours magnificent, the team is super small, it's downtown so hello again BART I've missed you, and the icing on top of this New Job cake is that I have eye-candy for a boss. (And if he ends up reading this at some point, come on dude you know you're a looker it's not exactly breaking news.)

Anywho, back to this real person business... I guess the phenom known as "the real world" is a) 40 hours or more (or in my case 45-60 because of my second job) of work per week that you enjoy immensely, b) everything you thought would be paid for later is due NOW and always forEVER and all of time, and c) that teensy fact that you could turn 25 or 30 or 40 or 60 at any point now that the seemly-far-off-land of aging is rapidly approaching no matter how much anti-aging creme you lather... then I'll never be ready and I'm OK with that. My five-year goals are already almost fulfilled and it hasn't even been nine whole months since I've graduated college at age 22. And guess what - I'm fine with the fact that it scares me half to death. Now I just need some tattoos, a Creative Writing related degree, a published novel, maybe a dog, a few more cats, and the friends and family I hope to keep and haven't met yet (oh and time and money to fund all of this) and I've mapped out the rest of my life. LORDY that's terrifying!

No more "K-12 and most certainly college of some sort so you can be a real person later" status that we all have hammered over our heads since we could understand language. No more scheduling for the life to come because it's already here. No more "putting things off until I graduate" because whoopsy there's a degree with my name on it around here somewhere. No more "I'll do it when I have time" because time will never be the same length as it was before. It's getting shorter and shorter, so realizing you're a real person brings you closer to that perspective.

Take it from this real person.