Mark DuPre - How to Act Like a Grown-Up

For a good, solid learning experience with a smattering of rich humor, I suggest you take hold of Mark DuPrs How to Act Like a Grown-up. You wont want to put it down until you are finished. I am still smiling.

GAVIN MACLEOD

Actor, The Love Boat and The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Just before reading How to Act Like a Grown-up I had just finished reading an autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, a man who was known for his common-sense proverbs and his everyday wisdom. I feel that Marks book delivers the same theme. Mark addresses everyday situations with an incredibly clear common-sense approach. It is refreshing, humorous, and practical. I believe that it will serve to help and encourage many of us to put on our adult clothes and stand up as adults. Thank you, Mark, for opening our eyes to the obvious. Compliance to these principles will make the world a better place to live.

WILLIAM G. BAXTER, M.ED.

Director of Family Counseling and Mediation Services

This should be required reading for everyone over the age of sixteen. As a person who had very little help growing up, I found Marks book to be full of information that I wish I knew twenty years ago. Even at the age of forty, I found knowledge that I can use today. As a mum of two young boys, I know what an uphill climb parents have these days. Parents will find many tips in steering their children in the right direction. Marks no-nonsense manner shows how to carry oneself without resorting to condescension. The common sense advice offered is perfect for an age when common sense is not so common.

LYNDA OROURKE

Mother of two

This is a deftly written book whose light touch and humorous tone make its serious message easy and quick to understand. Whether were young or old, acting like an adult requires knowing and adhering to societal norms, which Mark reminds us are as necessary to individual success as to the success of our civil society. What our parents taught us about appropriate behavior was right, and Mark helps them out by refreshing and updating their advice and reminding all of us about the importance of the social contract and the Golden Rule. And Mark knows what hes talking aboutas a wildly successful university professor for more than two decades, he knows how to deliver information in a way that is listened to and remembered.

DR. TINA LENT

Chair/Professor, Fine Arts Dept., College of Liberal Arts

Rochester Institute of Technology

THIS BOOK IS AWESOME! I read it from cover to cover in one sitting. Mark DuPrs observations in How to Act Like a Grown-up are invaluable. Mark examines everything from cell phone etiquette to being on time, from divesting to investing. As I read the book, there were moments when I thought, Yes, get themfinally someone is addressing this! But then there were those moments when I was challenged to act like a grown-up myself. This is an excellent resource, empowering us to swim upstream in an age of extended adolescence.

DR. H. LEE JOYNER, JR.

Lead/Teaching Pastor

Christ Church, Gaithersburg, MD

I smiled though this book because it contains very direct instructions from a man who has submersed himself into communityhe has seen what works and what doesnt. Too many adults are figuring this stuff out in their thirties and forties because they didnt have folks in their lives who were straight-shooters with them on the how tos of social behavior. Teens and adults alike should read this book and use it as a discussion starter in a small group.

HEATHER R. STEVENSON

Artistic Director, PUSH Physical Theatre

How to Act like a Grown-up is an enjoyable and easy read! It felt as though I was sitting across from my wise grandfather as he taught me the lessons of life. It has made me think twice about being late and helped me to realize how self-centered tardiness can be. This is the perfect book to give to anyone who is looking to gain some wisdom in their life!

DANIELLE WINDUS

Danielle Windus Cook Properties, LLC

BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC

Racine, Wisconsin, USA

www.broadstreetpublishing.com

How to Act Like a Grown-Up

Witty Wisdom for the Road to Adulthood

Copyright 2015 Mark DuPr

ISBN-13: 978-1-4245-4988-7 (hardcover)

ISBN-13: 978-1-4245-5022-7 (e-book)

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission.

Cover design by Chris Garborg at www.garborgdesign.com
Typesetting by Katherine Lloyd at www.TheDESKonline.com

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Printed in China

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To the woman who started me on my journey to acting like a grown-up and to the one who is working so hard to complete it.

To my mother, Mary Katherine Murphy DuPr, who treated me like a grown-up from my earliest days and showed me that sacrifice, love, and humor were worth striving for. And to my wife, Diane Roy DuPr, who really is a grown-up and keeps working patiently with me on getting there myself. Miss you, Mom. Love you, Diane.

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

Abraham Lincoln

Children have one kind of silliness, as you know, and grown-ups have another kind.

C. S. Lewis

E very generation complains about the one that comes after it. The complaints are pretty much the same: theyre too loud, they dont show any respect, and their music is terrible. (If youre hearing this from older people now, dont worry. Youll have your chance with the generation that follows you.)

But if you listen closely, there are some truths to be learned between all the complaints. We all need to grow up, no matter what our age. There are some things that real grown-ups do and think that dont change over time, and life gets better if we learn what those are. Theres nothing sadder than a person with a grown-up body and a mind and heart that havent caught up yet.

In the hopes that you wont end up one of those, I offer these observations on how to act like a grown-up. Sometimes just looking at the right way to act or to think about something is a great way to begin to go from child to adult. Certainly a person can do all the outward grown-up things and still be a jerk insideno book can prevent that. But I hope that laying out a few grown-up behaviors and perspectives will encourage you toward a quicker maturing process, which will benefit you and everyone around you. And life is just plain easier when youre an adult and acting like one.

Please note that I dont presume for a minute that most people over the age of twenty-onemyself includedactually do these things and think these thoughts all the time. The viewpoints contained here are just as challenging to me as they might be for you. Im still working on growing up. (I didnt get a whole lot of help when I was younger.) Id just like to share some of the hard-won observations and perspectives that have helped me along the way.

I f youre just heading into the adult world, or if youve been in it a short while, youve probably observed all the members of both teams playing in a competition getting trophies just for competing. Or youve been part of a class where every student has been told he or she is amazing and everyones a winner, or where children learn to sing songs of praise to their own wonderfulness. If so, Im sorry. Youve grown up in a world gone crazyin more ways than this book can address. One of the biggest challenges of people growing up now is the need to throw off the silliness about everyone being a winner and automatically being a remarkable and special human being.