Transitions: The Continuing Education of Adulthood

“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.”
-Isaac Asimov

Adulthood is about contending with transitions.

Granted, childhood is about transitions too, but there is something about being an adult that makes transitions seem pretty…complex. It is not just about things like your parents moving across the country and having to start a new life, change schools, make new friends, and it is not just about being a child dealing with divorcing parents. While I have dealt with all of those transitions, and they were much harder than most of the little transitions I deal with periodically in my adult life, as an adult I am responsible for more than just myself -- and that makes the transitions of adulthood much more complicated than the those of my youth.

As an adult I responsible for my family, my relationship, my pets, my rent payment, my student loan payments, the upkeep of my savings, my health and wellness (including feeding myself and exercising), my career choices, the work I produce at my job, paying tuition, my graduate coursework, and getting up every morning (even though I am exhausted most of the time) to do it all again while trying to remain a positive and upbeat person.

So, when it comes time for a transition, I feel the responsibilities I have precariously (but mostly comfortably) balanced for so many years become unstable. Transition can mean uncertainty, and as an adult, uncertainty is scary and exhilarating all at once.

I try to think that the fates have lead me on a certain path so that I can learn as many lessons as possible and continue to evolve as a person. In the midst of the hardest transitions, this is what I try to remember, and then no matter what the outcome, I am content in the fact that I'm still learning.

What about you Adulthooders? What are some of your thoughts on transitions? How have you learned to cope/deal/handle/celebrate transitions? Do the transitions ever get easier?

For more dialogue about transitions, check out this oldie-but-goodie guest post by The Fickle Nickle’s Nicole Carpenter: All I Need to Know, I Learned in Pre-School

Keep thinking, keep trying, keep learning,

-Mara

{Photo courtesy of the wonderfully talented Pete Tomaszek. Contact me for more info on his photography.}