Registration Sticker

 I had to get my registration sticker for my car by the end of this month. It’s funny how, when you get the new sticker with the date on it one year into the future, it seems so far away. Then, it creeps up on you so fast. 

The first steps are to get and inspection and then withdraw $80. I lived in Waller county for two and a half years, and I think they didn’t require it. I know it’s been a while since I had it done, but I passed with flying colors. 

Then I went to get $80, and I was ready. I looked up the tax assessors office near me and went. I always get so much anxiety about this, and I have no idea why. 

There was a very young girl in the office with me doing the same thing. She looked about my daughter’s age. She was at the teller next to me, and there was no one else in the office. So I could hear everything the teller told her. The teller was basically scolding her, because the car was registered in Florida, so she needed to do extra paperwork and pay extra fees to make it a Texas car. Then the teller rudely told her, “The car isn’t even in your name!”  

I realized, ahhhh. That’s why I have so much anxiety over stuff like this. It’s because I was once her. I was once the young adult whose parents basically taught her nothing about adulting. If you’re on TikTok, you know there’s a lady going viral right now for being mad at her 17 year old daughter because she wants to live in a dorm next year and not stay home to attend community college. The girl told her mom, this tiktoker, that she found the waitlist for the dorm she wants and was wondering what to say when she called the number. The mom, all pissed off and bitter told her, I don’t know, you want to be an adult so bad, You figure it out!  

She wasn’t trying to teach her anything, she was mad that the girl wasn’t making the choice she wanted her to make.  This woman must be around my age if she has a child that’s a graduating senior. A lot of tiktokers are calling her out for her immature brat behavior. I would too if I wanted to show my face. I would have thought that Gen X would be better at launching our kids to leave the nest, but I digress.  Just simply tell your kid to call and say, “Hi I would like to get on the waiting list for ___ please.” 

Anna also didn’t make the choice I wanted her to make. Through Anna’s life, she’s going to do that. She’s a different person than me.   Seeing that young girl in the tax assessors office and remembering having the same issues (when I was that age, it took several days and several tries to get my car completely legal because I had no idea what I was doing- my parents were also mad at me for wanting to be an adult and withheld helpful information from me as a punishment. A lot of people on TikTok say that’s neglect. Maybe it is. Maybe it’s neglect when it happens to others. I’ve found that other people get validation that I just don’t get. 

At least I now realize why I have such anxiety over doing these things. I need to recognize it again next September and just do the steps and do it. It really was a simple process and everyone was so nice. I just hope Florida girl is ok.