"Real" Adulthood

I don't know how other people my age feel about this, but I constantly feel like I have to prove to the world that I'm a "real" adult. Maybe this is because I could easily pass for 16--maybe 17 on a good day or if I'm wearing heels!

I've always felt that certain experiences, rather than certain magical "ages," make you an adult. Or at least, over the past few years, I've had a number of moments after which I thought, "I'm definitely an adult now because of what I just did/ learned/ experienced." Such as:

• signing my first lease
• driving by myself for a long trip (250+ miles)
• signing a contract for my first rental car
• filing a motion in court as part of my summer job
• getting into law school
• learning how to cook
• learning how to read a map (Seriously. This is something I really never had to do until I was trying to drive around a new city by myself).
• realizing that I now find the "teen" section of the library to be pretty boring
• setting up flights and flying by myself for the first time
• going to networking events
• going to my first charity benefit dinner/ party
• buying my first real professional suit
• checking my credit score
• replacing ink cartridges in my printer (because this used to always be Dad's job . . . but not since I'm living on my own)
• realizing that things like hydrogen peroxide, laundry detergent, and light bulbs are cropping up on my list of "stuff to get at Wal-Mart"
• basically everything that happened while I studied abroad in Costa Rica, including interning at a law firm and taking care of bank business, all in Spanish

I do really love the independence of being on my own and making my own decisions. For example,   no one is going to say anything about it if I decide to have blueberries for dinner (like tonight), or if I want to get up and clean/ study/ watch movies/ make macaroni and cheese at 3:37am because I can't sleep. It's great to be free to do things your own way, but then the pressure is on to make the right decisions and use the freedom wisely. And sometimes I have no clue what I'm doing and have a major "Toto, I think we're not in Kansas anymore" moment.
Most of the time I feel like I'm a real adult . . . but I'm not sure when I'll ever be convinced that the rest of the world sees me that way too. I think my perception of this would be different if I were working right now instead of in graduate school. Retaining the "student" label sometimes makes me feel like I come across as being basically still in high school! But even if I do look a lot younger than I really am--I want people to take me and my ideas seriously.