Barely Functional Adult by Meichi Ng
"It's important to hold onto your good days; they keep you sane in the face of bad ones."
BARELY FUNCTIONAL ADULT
Overwhelmed with anxiety and closed in with cabin fever from too much time alone in my apartment all day, I was still in my pyjamas when Charlie got home from work. The pandemic had really been getting to me that day, and I'd spent too much time on The New York Times website, engrossed in COVID-19 articles about vaccine distribution and global politics. It had taken a toll and sent me into a spiral of despair and depression that I couldn't seem to claw my way out of.
Charlie knew what I needed. A walk to the Indigo flagship at Broadway & Granville. Any library or bookstore would do, actually, but it was late, and Indigo was still open.
The fresh air helped, and I knew a book would too.
As soon as we arrived, I made my way to the HUMOUR section immediately. Since I review a ton of books, I have quite a few at home kindly sent to me by publishers, but humour isn't a genre I typically review, although perhaps it should be?
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| Courtesy of @barelyfunctionaladult |
I glanced up and down the shelf, stopping halfway down at the letter N, pulled out this intriguing black book with a spine spelling out 'BARELY FUNCTIONAL ADULT' in white bold complimented by a crying graphic. "You're perfect" I thought to myself.
I didn't know anything about the author, her graphic comics, or what the book was about, but something about it called out to me and I knew I needed it at that moment. So I paid, took it home, and started reading it immediately. For the next five hours, I was engrossed.
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Once I opened the book, I knew I had made the right decision in purchasing it. Within pages, I found it incredibly relatable, and downright hilarious. I felt like the author Meichi was peeping inside my head and writing down my thoughts, but they were actually her thoughts, and we were just feeling the same things, which just gave me comfort in a time of need.
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I felt myself really resonating with the Glory of Quitting chapter. The struggle of not always knowing what your next professional move is going to be or the initial excitement of new jobs only to find yourself bored a few months to a year later unsure what you're doing or why you're still there.
Meichi put it perfectly when she said "Work became so much more tolerable when I decided to resign. I would later learn one of the most liberating decisions one can make in life is to quit a job they hate."
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Meichi states that although therapy didn't fix her, it "revealed all of my broken pieces at higher fidelity. But maybe that's the point. Embracing how everyone is broken in their own ways and learning to feel okay about it." I really like how she worded this, and it left me deep in thought afterwards since I'm always thinking of other ways to approach therapy.
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Barely Functional Adult was everything I wanted it to be and more. I found it incredibly relatable, and really enjoyed the comic books throughout. I haven't read much humour, but I'm making a commitment to add more to my bookshelf after reading this since it really brightened my mood, lifted my anxiety, and made me laugh.
There's already so many people that I want to recommend or gift this book to. It was truly wonderful.