Last weekend I dragged my butt off the couch so that I could go out and buy some groceries. I didn’t want to do it. It was snowing relentlessly (again!) and I knew the store would be crowded with tons of other Sunday afternoon shoppers. But I did it anyway because I knew that if I didn’t I would have nothing to eat for lunch all week. When I got home, I used some of those groceries to make some pasta sauce from scratch and enjoy a delicious meal. Based on most articles I’ve read about young adulthood lately, I deserve a fucking medal.

It’s at this point that I should probably back it up. I know I don’t deserve a medal. I don’t even deserve a pat on the back. I bought some groceries, cooked some food and washed some dishes, all regular everyday stuff. And yet lately it seems as though that’s a huge feat. I can’t go a few days without seeing yet another listicle about all the things that are difficult about adulthood. This whole being a grown up thing can be a bit daunting. It’s even more daunting if I compare myself to my mother who at my age had already been working steadily in the career of her choice for nine years, was married, had a baby and owned a house. A house! My biggest asset is my Macbook Pro, which, coincidentally, I also refer to as my baby.

With young people being expected to stay in school for much longer periods of time, versus the days when you could get a decent job out of high school and work your way up the ladder, it makes sense that we’re feeling like perpetual adolescents. But when did we start taking pride in our inability to take care of ourselves?

If I were to judge young adulthood by the way it is presented on the Internet, I would come away with the following:

1. Buying groceries is hard, so it’s okay to live off of condiments. Who says ketchup can’t make a meal?
2. Doing laundry on a regular basis sucks, so you should just buy a new pack of underwear instead of cleaning the pairs that you already own.
3. Showering regularly is optional.

What? When did this happen?

We all have responsibilities that we aren’t thrilled with (hello, taxes!). But it seems like our generation has gone off the deep end when it comes to learned helplessness. The solution to having a pile of dirty laundry is to haul that load down to your laundromat and clean it, not to go shopping! If you don’t have any groceries in your fridge, go to the grocery store and buy some. Better yet, look up websites that will give you a shopping list and a few corresponding recipes to go with your new groceries.

We all have things that we struggle with. For some it’s meal planning. For others it’s cleaning. And still others can’t seem to get a grasp on their finances. Or maybe it’s a mix of all three. But there’s no reason you should spend your days struggling with these things while faux boasting that you’ve eaten nothing but Cheetos for the past week. You can learn how to take care of yourself and get into a routine so that one day you’ll wake up and your apartment is clean, your lunch is packed and you actually know how much money you have in your checking account.

I know that as humans we tend to be lazy. Do I want to write down all of my daily expenses in a colour coded Excel sheet? I do not. But I do it so that I am not continually convinced that someone is picking my pocket (hint: that someone is me putting more money on my Starbucks card). I would be thrilled if I could spend my days lazing on my couch and marathoning Peaky Blinders for the fifth time, but I can’t. I have to join the rest of the world and do my best at being an adult. And while I certainly don’t have all of my shit together, I think I’m doing an okay job.