The Moment of My Adulthood Awareness

When I was in high school like any other teenager I wanted stuff, independence, and gas for the car my dad gave me. I needed a job but I also didn't want to be an adult. So, my solution was to get a job at

Who could be a grown up working in a toy store? You'd be surprise. For three holiday seasons I watched parents allow their demon spawn do this to the toys on display...

When it was proven the demons would be satisfied I was left to clean up the mess. With my back turned the parents, sneaky bastards, would then grabbed a pristine box off the self with a wake of destructed behind them. It was annoying but not my defining moment.

Since I was a teenager in the 1990s I was paid in pennies twice a month but it was more pennies than I had every been given at one time before.

Back then it was pretty exciting stuff. But still not my defining moment. However, I am getting to it.  Hold onto your hats. It kind of began one summer during those three years when a friend and I wondered into a bike store. I wanted this.

I was a teenager being paid in pennies making that large-ish price tag look like $1,000,000 but I wanted that bike. Because I didn't have a million dollars readily available I was forced to put my beloved bike in layaway, with a $20 payment due every couple of weeks. Does anyone even use layaway any more? Anyway, because of my meager wages I did not take my bike home for nearly three months. I was still a kid but I was a kid with a cool bike. Nope, not my defining moment but I'm getting to it, I promise.

After high school I went to college then got a good job. Believe it of not it took another 10 years for me to be slammed with the realization that I was in fact an adult. It wasn't that I moved out of my parents house to pay my own way in the world or I that got my first car loan or I even that I had traveled the globe on my own. I always felt like a kid.

Okay, are you ready for it? What was my big moment, the turning point of my life? Here it is. I had just moved to Washington State a mile from my workplace. Because I was so close I decided I needed a bike so I went shopping. That was when it struck me like a brick to head. I had just bought my brand spanking new bike and strapped to the back of my Jeep.

I realized then that I just paid cash for a $250 bike and could afford to buy 10 more of them without feeling the strain on wallet. I was a grown up. I am a grown up. How did that happen? When did that happen? Then this happened...

And I immediately reverted back to being a child but those were a cool 10 minutes!