I’ve surpassed the milestone ages of 18 and 21. I’ve paid my taxes. I feel like I have a million bills to pay. I have a full-time job. I can buy alcohol. I can vote in any election. And I’ve already started complaining about the younger generations with the “back in my day” phrase.
Does that make me an adult?
When do we really become adults?
“It’s circumstantial … For me to consider someone an ‘adult’ I think of their emotional maturity and ability to be self-sufficient, but I recognize that there is a lot of gray area,” said student Tori Villalobos.
We often recognize adulthood as 18.
“An adult is an individual who has reached the age of majority. The age of majority refers to the age at which a person will be defined by law to be an adult…Most countries have set the age of 18 being the age of majority,” according to Cornell Law School.
By this age according to the law, individuals have been given the rights and responsibilities of adulthood, which varies from state to state and from country to country. The responsibilities attached do as well. For example in countries like Mali and the Central African Republic, people as young as 15 are allowed to drink alcohol.
Yes, I understand there is a need to set an age for legal purposes such as drinking alcohol or getting your driver’s license because of our cognitive abilities.
The “gray” area of ages 18-24 are the years I believe to be strongly used to make mistakes and grow to become an adult.
Student Davis Stoffel disagrees with 18 being the age of adult distinction.
“I say at least 21. As I feel judging fresh 18 or even 19-year-olds as adults isn’t a totally fair assessment, those few years of ‘initial’ adulthood are more for self-discovery and improvement and I don’t think many people nowadays should be held to functioning adults standards at those ages,” said Stoffel.
Science also disagrees with the law and believes the age at which we reach adulthood mentally.
“An individual at the end of adolescence cannot be considered to be an adult when using physical, physiological, intellectual, social, emotional, and behavioral measures …Specialists in adolescent medicine have recognized this incongruity, and have redefined adolescence to include young adults up to age 24 years,” according to the National Library of Medicine.
I disagree with science. Like Villalobos, I agree that reaching adulthood and considering yourself an adult is too nebulous.
I never understood that once an individual turns 18 they are an adult.
Through my 23 years of life I have loved, lost and traveled more than most of my peers. I promptly had to grow up at a young age due to the circumstances and have often been complimented on my maturity for my age on a daily basis.
Yet, the impending doom that is graduating college and becoming fully independent living away from any family, and the pressure surrounding me watching my peers get married and start families is upon me.
The struggle to become what many believe an adult is hard at times.
I hold grudges seeing others on social media have their life figured out, when realistically I know we’re all going through the same feelings.
Which goes back to my belief that no individual truly grows up. Most people will constantly aim to keep learning, grow and be childish to remain young at heart. Being an adult in my opinion, is recognizing a constant need for growth.
If this is the case, then there really is no true right or wrong answer. We all become adults when the time is right.
