We headed back to her car and drove to Seabright Beach which to our surprise was very quiet. We exited and sat on a nearby bench so we could finish our food: Julie's burrito, and my own leftover froyo. The beach was beautiful from the view up, and the ocean breeze was fast enough without being chilly or burdensome. We talked about growing up and adulthood, after Julie made an off-comment about not being ready to be a "proper adult". Naturally I followed up with that, seeing that she's got her life together with social events and research and work experience and living off-campus. She explained that she was skeptical of people our age who "play house". In her words, just because you sign a lease and know how to cook doesn't mean you're an adult. At least not yet. As we packed up our stuff and headed down the stairs to Seabright Beach proper, she further explained with an example of her roommate getting threatened by her startup's CTO(??? CEO??? it's a tiny tiny startup) and, in an attempt to stand her ground, decided to negotiate and establish her boundaries by inviting said CTO to her boyfriend's house (which is also the boyfriend's parent's house). Apparently Julie's roommate wanted to be in a place of power to negotiate. Which kind of makes sense, but my god, you could consult a person first and execute with more tact. So that leans into the "playing" bit of the phrase. Julie herself said she won't be immune to this sense of playing house. There will be a time she makes a stupid, serious mistake eventually, if she hasn't already. I don't remember the response I made, but it all made sense to me.
"[Growing up] is hard and nobody understands." // https://www.homestuck.com/story/2391