The Definition of Being Adult

This is a guest post by Monique Jones, owner/webmaster of Moniqueblog an alternative entertainment site focusing on how movies, comics, and cartoons can teach tolerance and acceptance of others.

I consider myself a very intelligent woman, but just because I’m intelligent doesn’t necessarily mean I’m smart all of the time. One instance where my intelligence failed me is in the concept of “adulthood.”

For most of my life, I envisioned adulthood as a stage in my life where I’d finally get everything I wanted, a husband would fall into my lap, and life would be like what I see in the movies—glitzy and full of excitement.

It didn’t occur to me to stop and think that part of the impetus behind such a life would be self-esteem. For some reason, I thought belief in oneself would just happen; that the money and success would bring self-esteem about, not actually growth and self-exploration of the soul.

Don’t get me wrong; I’ve always had self-esteem. But my problem was I’d always put a stopper on it. I actually got spooked by it, thinking that by believing too highly in myself, it would put jinxes on my endeavors. I mistook self-esteem for vanity.

I hate to say it was only recently when I realized that what I was doing was entirely backwards. I’ve been working towards the life I described all of my life, but it took my recent habit of journal writing to realize that I was standing in my own way. By only half-believing in my endeavors, I stopped the progress of good things coming my way. By discounting some of the positive things I did, I was limiting what the universe and higher powers had in store for me. By being negative, I was inflicting pain on myself.

Now, I realize that there is something to positivity. Being able to have full belief in yourself, not just half, is the mark of a truly mature adult.

Monique Jones is currently a senior in Journalism at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is the owner/webmaster of Moniqueblog, an alternative entertainment site focusing on how movies, comics, and cartoons can teach tolerance and acceptance of others. She is also a freelance writer who writes a column about what comic books can teach young girls for Goodkin, a family-oriented website, as well as writing copy for many businesses throughout the Southeast.