When My Best Friend's Dad Made Me Question Everything About Being an Adult

Anonymous Tipsy Fox #504 · General

So here's the thing. I'm a junior in high school and my best friend is Jane. We've been friends since like forever, elementary school even before that, y'know? So we're pretty tight, but lately there have been these weird things happening with her dad. It all started when she came over to work on our group project together and mentioned that Mr. Thompson had gotten a new job. Nothing out of the ordinary so far, right? But then it got weirder. She told me this story about how they went shopping for school supplies yesterday and her dad picked up some random stuff he didn't need and was like super happy about finding good deals. At first I thought, okay, he's just a person who likes shopping too. But it kept going. The next day, she texted me in class asking if I knew why Mr. Thompson bought her a new phone last week. My mind went to all sorts of places, but then she said they were having a hard time with the internet at home and needed a backup plan for emergencies. Then she told me he started teaching himself Spanish on Duolingo, which is weird because Jane's family only speaks English. And now it seems like every single day, there’s something new from her dad that confuses me about what adulthood actually looks like. Is buying unnecessary stuff just being an adult? Does taking up a hobby at 40 make you less mature? What if someone teaches themselves another language for no reason? I mean, don't get me wrong, Mr. Thompson is really cool and all, but I'm starting to feel like maybe the things adults do are way more random than I ever imagined them to be. Am I overthinking this or does anyone else find this as confusing as I do? Should I just stop asking Jane so many questions about her dad’s quirks?