Adulthood is a frontier most teenagers look forward to crossing. The moment one leaves the comforting nest of the family home is definitely an exciting one, but what comes after that is not always a bed of roses.

In this series of images, I explored the aspects of living alone I have had to face in my everyday life since I moved from Italy to Scotland. The instances I picked resonate with me on a personal level, but I can imagine that a lot of young adults can relate to some of them too: budgeting hardships, diets based on cheap noodles, nerve-racking job interviews and laundry and dish washing duties are at the heart of the daily lives of a lot of people I know. Also, throughout the past few years, I have definitely boarded more planes than entered cars as, especially at the beginning, homesickness is very hard to avoid – does not matter how tough we want to appear.

I represented all of these situations from an ironic point of view; sure, they may be marked as “problems” or “obstacles” by some, but they are indeed laughable annoyances considering how rewarding finally being independent is.

Adulthood: A Beginner’s Guide – Erica Marchetti 2018