After nine semesters of college, seven different jobs and countless sleepless nights, I am finally a "real" adult, as I like to call it, with a full-time job here at Hammock, Inc. My parents, professors and older friends have been telling me since I was 20 that reaching the age of adulthood would mark the end of the fervor, idealism and optimism I felt as a college student. I've been told for three years now that adulthood means hating your job, coming home exhausted every night, losing touch with old friends and losing interest in the world around you. According to my aged mentors, the moment I embrace adulthood I will become a boring individual with nothing to look forward to except prime time sitcoms (though I must admit, Grey's Anatomy has already hooked me). Maybe as I grow older I will prove them right, but for now, I'm convinced they are mistaken.

Today I came to work and helped fold 250 Hammock, Inc., t-shirts with my co-workers, all of whom are older and much more experienced than I am. As I struggled to perfect the t-shirt folding process, I realized that these "real" adults are actually quite concerned with the world around them. In a philanthropic effort to give back to the global community, the Hammock team will donate a laptop to One Laptop per Child every time we receive five photos of our "Hammock friends" wearing their Hammock t-shirt. And if that's boring, well then, I hope I can be boring one day too.

Sure, adulthood comes with the frustration of paying off student loans, car insurance payments and those pesky taxes (I couldn't BELIEVE how much of my first paycheck went to Uncle Sam), but for me it comes with a lot of perks as well. Every day I read, write and learn about the NFIB members we feature in MyBusiness, the famous patriots we write about in American Spirit and the civilian-soldiers who tell their stories in GX. And as an added bonus, I learn more about the craft of putting together strikingly attractive magazines every day.

I'm sure that after a few months I will occasionally experience the unavoidable monotony that comes with working any 9 to 5--but for now I'm convinced that I work in the most fun and exciting office in Nashville. See? Adults can be idealistic and optimistic, too.