IAM 20

IAM 20

BY DELANEY LUNDQUIST

You do things that make you seem like a fully capable

adult, like paying electricity bills for your apartment and

being a full-time intern at an actual office and cooking

your own dinner every single night.

But you are also still young enough that your family

sends you care packages of cookies because this is your

first time living alone. And though you have 20 years of

life experience, it isn’t enough to make you stop eating

those cookies even when you are full.

This is how I came to find myself lying with my face

pressed to the cool tiles of my bathroom floor thinking

I was going to puke. It was because I ate an ungodly amount

of cookies, while standing alone in the kitchen of my

apartment, from a package my sister sent me, before

I had even been home long enough to take off my

work shoes.

I had a lot of time languishing dramatically on the

bathroom floor to really reflect upon my behavior.

WHEN YOU ARE 20, IT SOUNDS OLD BUT DOESN’T FEEL LIKE IT AT ALL.

I was sweating and breathing heavily with my face

inches from the vent in the floor to absorb the pitiful

amounts of air-condition being emitted. While mentally

preparing myself to ralph, I could only think, “I cannot

believe that in two full decades of life I haven’t learned

when I have eaten too many cookies.”

It was a very sad realization; an actual low moment

as a I lay curled near the toilet clad in my entire “young

professional” ensemble.

There are few things more pathetic than lying on the

floor of your bathroom realizing you are going to literally

toss your cookies. And that is kind of what it is like being

20, you are either pretending you are an independent

adult or doing things characteristic of most two-year-olds

because you just aren’t sure you can be on your most

responsible behavior all the time. In my case, that thing

was eating 8 cookies in 15 minutes. And throwing up

8 cookies, 15 minutes later.

8 COOKIES

15 MINUTES

This is a basically true retelling of events that

happened to Delaney Lundquist in the summer of

2012. A little dramatic exaggeration for the sake

of the story never hurt anyone.

Delaney is a junior Communication Design student

at Washington University in St. Louis and created this

spread for Digital Adventure in the fall of 2012.