Do You Need To Go To Adulting School?

Sure, you topped the class in Maths and Science, but can you fold a fitted sheet or sort your super? Anne Fullerton heads to the school that promises to teach a generation of hapless millennials how to be grown-ups.

- Anne Fullerton

It’s minus one degree outside and I’m sprinting along the road that runs to downtown Portland, Maine, in a snow-soaked pair of canvas sneakers. The wind cuts through the too-small puffer jacket I’ve borrowed from a friend’s 11-year-old stepdaughter and I’m swearing furiously through a mouthful of Snickers bar. I’m already 15 minutes late for class.

But this isn’t just any class, this is a seminar at The Adulting School – an institution designed to teach Gen Ys and millennials how to get their shit together. The classes focus on basic life skills, like how to dress appropriately, cook nutritious meals, get to places on time and generally run one’s life more effectively. All the stuff a functional 30-year-old woman like myself should already know.

I slink into The Honey Paw, a hip Asian fusion joint that routinely tops lists of the city’s best restaurants. But instead of being met with side-eye for my tardiness, I’m welcomed by the school’s communications director, handed a drink voucher, and directed towards the cosy glow of the bar.

The attendees, mainly women in their mid-20s and early 30s, stand around the Scandinavian-inspired communal table, chatting and sipping cocktails. Between the artisanal mixed drinks, the ultra-cool interior design and the casually late start time, I’m starting to understand why 20-odd people dragged themselves out in the midst of a fierce snow storm to be here.