The time of the year has arrived when family members start asking you about the contents of your Christmas list. If you ask a child, the little one’s list will consist of toys, games and magical things. (One young girl just told The Leader’s Editor in Chief that she wanted an invisibility cloak.) But when you’re an adult, there’s no room to ask for the power of teleportation — you really need some dish towels for your kitchen.
“When you’re still living with your parents, you don’t need anything practical because Mom and Dad have that stuff all taken care of,” said S. L. Fuller, Editor in Chief of The Leader. “But then you go to college and start living on your own with no money. So when Christmas rolls around, it’s the perfect opportunity to ask for things you find in the ‘Home’ section of Walmart instead of electronics.”
Her wish list this year consists of: a backpack, an umbrella and a drying rack.
“It’s crazy how you have to save up so much money to acquire your first apartment, but it’s even more wild that all the little things that go inside it probably add up to cost even more,” said Rebecca Hale, Leader Reverb Editor.
Hale said that even though she’s been living in an apartment since August and loves it, one of her roommates will be moving out soon, taking everything with him. So what is she asking for for Christmas? Pots, pans, towels, etc.
The Leader’s Layout Editor, Veronica Penoyer, saw her older siblings take on the holidays as adults when she was still a child. Now that she and her younger brother are adults too, she follows in her older sibling’s footsteps.
“As [my siblings] got older it wasn’t about what they wanted, it was about what we wanted and having to preserve the childhood dream of what Christmas means,” said Penoyer. “Now that my brother and I have reached adulthood, Christmas has changed. I get excited for Christmas because of family … For this Christmas — and every other Christmas since I’ve been in college — I’m asking for necessities.”
Penoyer’s wish list includes: shampoo, food, cooking appliances, furniture, gas money and an oil change.
Meghan Guattery, The Leader’s Managing Editor, is asking Santa for things you can’t wrap in a box. Well, except for a puppy. She would totally accept one of those.
“At the top of my list is a winning lottery ticket. I’m really dreading trying to figure out how to pay back my loans, and I’d love nothing more than to be able to have my own apartment right out of college,” said Guattery. “If Santa can’t deliver on the whole ‘millionaire bachelorette’ thing, a job in my field with a decent starting salary would be nice — just a little reassurance that the past four years haven’t been for nothing.”
While the notion of adulting for the holidays seems like a depressing concept, it’s really not. As we unwrap our crock pots, which News Editor Amanda Dedie said she asked for, we get to watch our little cousins, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews unwrap the toys and games that they immediately ask to play with us. Adulting means that putting smiles on others’ faces has become more important than receiving gifts. And that’s just fine with us.