Basic Life Skills I Still Don’t Have

I am quickly approaching my 20th birthday and as I near the end of my teenage years I’ve been starting to reflect on how un-adultlike I still feel. Join me in recounting all of the basic life skills I still do not have.

Cleaning mirrors

What cleaning product do I use? Do I use a rag, a paper towel, a newspaper? Wait, am I supposed to clean in one direction or in circles? No matter what I try there always seem to be streaks left! Someone please teach me how to clean my mirrors.

Opening cans

Until very recently I had never opened a can in my life. Everything I had ever eaten came from jars, bags, and boxes, but not cans. It’s just a can though, right? I’m sure it’s self explanatory, even if I struggled to figure it out, I could probably just find a video on Youtube, right? Wrong! Things went downhill fast and all I will say is that shortly after my first attempt we had to buy a new can opener.

How to deal with bugs

I may believe myself to be a strong and independent woman but if there is a bug of any kind in my house, or worse, my room you can be sure that I’ll be running for the hills.

If a bug wants to be in my house it better be paying rent. Any spider or bee, or even bugs as harmless as moths and ladybugs are my enemies. However, as strong as my distaste for bugs might be, I will never be the one getting rid of them. Letting them out, squishing them, catching them, none of the above. I will leave my house before taking any sort of action on a bug.

Taking medicine

Something must have happened to me when I was younger because for years I have been unable to take any sort of medication that comes in pill form.

If I’m sick, you could bet that I’d be buying that cough syrup for children. In fact, I would rather get a vaccination for the common flu than take a pill. Recently my parents bought me the most important thing in my medicine cabinet: my very own pill crusher, for all of my pill crushing needs.

I could go on and on and on. I have extremely limited cooking skills, I would never know how to get where I’m going without Google Maps, and I never separate my colours and whites when doing my laundry. But honestly? I’m doing okay.

Yes, I’m taking another step towards adulthood but that doesn’t mean I’ll stop learning. When I was younger I thought grown-ups knew everything about everything, but the truth is that none of us ever stop learning.

There’s a lot of stuff I still don’t know how to do, but I’m surrounded by people willing to teach me and I’ve got my whole life ahead of me to keep on learning.