Grown Up?

Today is my 26th birthday. There was a time (not really terribly long ago either) when I thought a 26-year-old was an adult. My parents got married at 24, and had me at 27. And considering I've always thought of them as adults with their $h!t mostly together, and now I'm around the same age, so I feel like I somehow should feel like a responsible adult who knows what she's doing. However, I most certainly don't feel like a "grown up." Which begs the question, when exactly, does one feel like a grown up?

It most definitely wasn't upon turning 18, or graduating from high school. It wasn't after the last time I lived with my parents (the summer after freshman year of college). It wasn't even when I graduated from college and started supporting myself.

At this point I feel a little more "grown up." I pay all my own bills (ok, not my cell phone, but we're all on a family plan together since it's cheaper), I decide where I'm living. I travel without always telling my parents or always checking in when I arrive at a destination (or back home). (I still tell them about the big trips overseas, but really because I'm too excited not to!) I change flat tires and set (although not empty!!) mouse traps on my own. Heck I can even rent a car now without paying an arm and a leg (just an arm).

Even though I've been on my own for a few years now, there are still semi-regular phone calls home to ask questions about things I haven't done before. Like when I transferred my car from my grandpa's name to mine. Or bought car insurance for the first time. Or temporary health insurance when I got booted from Dad's company benefits but couldn't enroll in student health insurance until the new semester. Or when I hosted Easter for the first time and had to figure out how much ham to get for 14 people. While it's exciting (and sometimes a bit scary) to be figuring out how to do stuff on my own, those phone calls home don't exactly further the "I feel like an adult now" feeling.

So when do you feel like an adult? When my life stops revolving around semesters? Somehow I don't think finishing my PhD is going to be the mysterious switch that does it. Is it when I get my first "real" job? When I have benefits and retirement savings? Or when I buy a house? Get married? Or have a baby? When my hair turns gray? When I hit menopause? Or when I have to take care of my parent(s)? Do you ever feel like an adult?