Once upon a time, I became an adult.

I don’t know how it happened. I don’t know when it happened. I didn’t wake up one morning and suddenly say, “Goodness gracious me, I’ve just become an adult.” But somewhere, somehow, sometime, it gradually happened. And no matter how hard I tried to deny it, I was faced with the undeniable truth. I was an adult.

And, as I’m sure most of you would realise, being an adult comes with a bunch of other stuff associated with it. You don’t just become an adult and continue living your previous, carefree existence. No sir. You’ve got responsibilities.

Those responsibilities didn’t hit me all at once either. It was a gradual kind of thing – possibly more gradual than it is for a lot of other people. But soon enough, they started adding up.

Job – check. Relationship – oh my god, marriage – double check. Parenthood – not just once but twice – check, check.

And it seems like every one of those additional checks leads to an exponential increase in responsibility. At the start, a job was kind of like something you had to pass the time away – a bit like school for grown ups. But now, a job is so much more, and while it might not be the ideal way I’d like to spend my day, the thought of not having one is infinitely more frightening. Which has led to a number of situations where I’ve held onto a job longer than I should have, even though it was clearly not the right place for me to be. But hey, that’s what us adults do, isn’t it?

I don’t necessarily look back at my childhood through a veil of rosy nostalgia. I don’t have any desire to turn back the clock, or regress back to an earlier age. While childhood meant a lack of responsibility, it also meant a lack of freedom and independence, and I do quite enjoy the fact that (most of the time) I am in charge of my own decisions.

Still, I often wish I was a little less tired at the end of the day, and I could look forward to the next day, even leap out from my bed, with a little more eagerness. Because, for whatever other advantages adulthood may offer, it’s damned hard work. And for someone who likes to spend their time lost in daydreams, that isn’t always an easy thing to handle.