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How Saving $2 on Gas Made Me Feel Like a Real Adult
It’s all about appreciating the things I have control over.
It was almost a decade after I became a legal adult that I finally felt like one. About a year ago, I was on my way to a nice patch of desert, 25 minutes east of my home in south Reno, and I had about a third of a tank of gas in my car. My boyfriend asked if we should fill up before getting on the freeway, and I said, “Let’s wait ’til we get there. Gas is cheaper outside of Reno.”
It was at this moment that I entered a new juncture in my life. My transformation into your typical American adult was complete. I was living in the suburbs and I drove everywhere and felt a visceral concern about rising gas prices. I had officially shed every iota of my young adult self, who was wild and free and unconcerned with gas prices and other things that most Americans care about so deeply, because back then, I was uber metropolitan, having lived in New York City for my entire life, and I didn’t even know how to drive a car anyway.
It’s not like I wasn’t doing grown-up things before I became concerned with gas prices. For years, I had been paying my bills and living with my partner and flossing every day and cooking dinner with a protein, carb, and vegetable every night. But there was something about becoming vigilant…
