The Mango Fiasco: A Slice of Adulting Reality

As a girlie in her mid-twenties, I have to admit that I have so much respect for (almost) all the adults before me. Let’s take my recent experience as an example, which I now properly refer to as the ‘Mango Fiasco’. It all started with a message from my mom last week, “I’ll bring you some mangoes for breakfast. Do you think you can cut them?”

To me, it was a weird question. I squinted in confusion. “Of course,” I replied. For all I knew, cutting mangoes was one of the easiest things in the world. I had watched my mom do it countless times at home. It looked effortless, so why couldn’t I?

The morning finally came when I had to do what was supposed to be an effortless job. I peeled the mango’s skin first—my skill, if I may say so, was a perfect 10/10. With a proud smile, I then tried to cut the fruit itself…

My breakfast turned out like this:

Well, I (very much) hate to break this to you, but at 26, I am still very untalented at cutting mangoes. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that my mom manages to do the mission impossible like a pro. Like… how? Mangoes are super oozy. Every time I try to cut one, I have to be extra careful not to let it slip from my hands, or else it will just be raw tomatoes and me against the morning world.

 

So, that’s how I came to this conclusion: adults have earned even more respect from me now that I’m an adult myself. Things I thought were easy as a kid—because an adult made it look effortless—seem more like false advertising now. Have we been scammed, guys? Were our eyes playing tricks on us? This was not in the adulting 101 manual!

On second thought, maybe it’s a wake-up call to remind me that little things take time, and that adulting is not as simple as I used to reckon. Being an adult means being responsible for our own messes, like how I had to clean all the spilled juice off the floor so no one would slip in the kitchen. It’s also a journey full of trial and error, where we don’t get to ‘watch and learn’, but instead ‘experience and learn’. Who knows, perhaps my mom didn’t have it all figured out instantly too. She has probably worked really hard for everything to look like how it is right now, including her skills in cutting mangoes.

I believe that while adulting is tough, it can still be something worth looking forward to. Never let your excitement about becoming an adult die down. It may not be child’s play, but just like this fiasco, it can be a fun tale to tell one day.

Bonus picture: I think I have made some good progress. See how perfectly shaped the cut is in the black circle below? Yup, I did that on day two.