The things we do for friends... ;)
May. 11th, 2006 11:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gelbes_gilatier"Das erste Mal" in English, and only for John:
Or what's definitely telling me I'm growing up.
It started sneaking up at me at the end of last year. Suddenly I got to know all those institutions for (future) unemployed Germans better than I ever wanted to. Then, only a month after graduating from college, I suddenly found myself in a so-called job with social security contribution (about the best you can get here). And not to mention my first own appartment (student dormitories definitely don't count as such) with having to pay for electricity and cable all for myself and stuff.
And then of course there's one of the biggest touchstones in the process of growing up: My first very own tax return. Procrastinated until the threshold of pain, the forms have already been lurking for me since March (or something like that). Unfortunately I already surrendered after leafing through the first pages and felt inadequately prepared for life. So I decided to do something very mature and grown-up... and still called my dad in the end. Okay, so I had to admit that "Hey, I can do that on my own." still doesn't really work for me, but at least I'm going to fill in the tax return forms this weekend with the help of that nifty "Tax Return for Dummies"-programm my dad uses, and even all on my own.
And the last thing that tells me I'm really growing up now? In september I'll most probably accompany a big group of young people on a trip to Berlin, either as their chaperone or their travel guide. Now, savour this: "Chaperone" sounds like "class trip with ten-people-bedrooms in Youth Hostels with curfew and ten p.m.", while "travel guide" sounds like "pseudo-historian with an umbrella and a Studiosus travel group on the Acropolis". Neither one of that sounds "hip" or at least comfortable. And I'm still going to do it. Why? Because it's my job. There's hardly a more grown-up reason. But rest assured: My speech in the bus right before the departure to Berlin will be a real - and definitely not grown-up - big hit.
First Time
Or what's definitely telling me I'm growing up.
It started sneaking up at me at the end of last year. Suddenly I got to know all those institutions for (future) unemployed Germans better than I ever wanted to. Then, only a month after graduating from college, I suddenly found myself in a so-called job with social security contribution (about the best you can get here). And not to mention my first own appartment (student dormitories definitely don't count as such) with having to pay for electricity and cable all for myself and stuff.
And then of course there's one of the biggest touchstones in the process of growing up: My first very own tax return. Procrastinated until the threshold of pain, the forms have already been lurking for me since March (or something like that). Unfortunately I already surrendered after leafing through the first pages and felt inadequately prepared for life. So I decided to do something very mature and grown-up... and still called my dad in the end. Okay, so I had to admit that "Hey, I can do that on my own." still doesn't really work for me, but at least I'm going to fill in the tax return forms this weekend with the help of that nifty "Tax Return for Dummies"-programm my dad uses, and even all on my own.
And the last thing that tells me I'm really growing up now? In september I'll most probably accompany a big group of young people on a trip to Berlin, either as their chaperone or their travel guide. Now, savour this: "Chaperone" sounds like "class trip with ten-people-bedrooms in Youth Hostels with curfew and ten p.m.", while "travel guide" sounds like "pseudo-historian with an umbrella and a Studiosus travel group on the Acropolis". Neither one of that sounds "hip" or at least comfortable. And I'm still going to do it. Why? Because it's my job. There's hardly a more grown-up reason. But rest assured: My speech in the bus right before the departure to Berlin will be a real - and definitely not grown-up - big hit.
