Are you there Mary Poppins? It’s me, Rachel.
Okay, everyone, is it just me, or is living on our own demanding? We have to cook, clean, and do laundry. What is this madness?
I miss the good ol’ days when tying a red blanket around my neck qualified me to be a superhero. And the blanket forts, those were fun too. However, being a sophomore in college, I am feeling the heat. We all have these responsibilities now and we have to get our priorities in check. Where’s Mary Poppins when you need her? I want a spoonful of sugar!
Ms. Poppins, may I please have a home cooked meal? Are you there? Maybe she is busy.
All in favor of a home cooked meal raise your hand (I am serious, raise your hand). I miss the good stuff; the homemade pasta sauce, lasagna and freshly grown fruits and vegetables. Not saying that the food here does not satisfy my food-adoring pallet. It does, to an extent. Everyone can admit that nothing tastes as good as a homemade meal. It gives us a warm, cozy feeling in our bellies. Now I am munching on Ramen Noodles and fruit snacks.
It is also safe to say that I am no Emeril Lagasse.
If I could make myself a delicious chicken dish with out having the kitchen explode, then I would give myself a gold medal. I am thinking about resorting to bringing out my inner Julia Child and just cook my way through cookbooks… and Pinterest.
Okay Mary Poppins, I need you to snap your fingers so that all my clothes can be picked up and the apartment can be cleaned. Hello?
Dang it.
Cleaning is another responsibility of college students. We have to vacuum, Swiffer, disinfect, and Febreeze everything at least once a week… or try to. I find that I do not “Mary Poppins-ify” my apartment unless I know for a fact that my parents are coming down to visit (hi mom and dad).
Additionally, it does not help that there is a Mount Trash Nation in the corner of the kitchen. Is it bad that it is “such a hassle” to bring that down stairs? You are always in your pajamas when it is time to take out the trash and walk downstairs. Sigh, so inconvenient.
Mrs. Poppins, could you help me with the laundry? Hello?
Aw-shoot.
And last but certainly not least, we encounter laundry. Laundry is unnecessarily complicated.
It is as if it requires formulas. I never know how much laundry detergent to put in the washer. Do I put in what it says on the bottle, or what my mother says?
Or what if the little pods of soap cause the washer to blow up and spew bubbles everywhere? That would be Mr. Too- Clean (haha, get it?).
And then there is the separating of the darks and the lights, the delicates (whatever the heck that is), the towels, and where do the colors go? Not with the lights, so with the darks? Wait, what if I lose a sock?
You literally just read all the questions I asked my mother the very first time I did laundry.
So clearly, Mary Poppins is not going to show up any time soon.
Darn.
Life without Mom and Dad can be very stressful. I think we all go through a three-stage cycle: at first we are all like “WOO NO PARENTS!” (hands in the air), and then we are all, “whomp, I can’t do my laundry! I miss my pops!” but then finally, we realize that hey, all of this is not so bad after all. Cooking, cleaning, and doing your laundry are very manageable responsibilities.
On top of your extracurricular activities and schoolwork, cleaning will probably become therapeutic for you; it definitely has for me. College is all about growing up, no longer needing mom and dad, and yes, even Mary Poppins, to solve your problems.
I believe that we take the little things like cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry, for granted. And when it actually comes down to doing it ourselves for the first time, it sets the pace for the path to maturity. Yep, you are all going to grow up.
In the mean time, have a supercalifragalisticexpialadocious time doing your laundry.