Last week I was watching a late night show were one of the topics where adulthood. At which age are you really an adult? Isn’t this different for each individual? Some of us want to grow up so fast, while others like to be young forever. So when do we see ourselves as adults?
Most of my relatives had kids before the age of 24
One of the talk show guests says recent studies show you’re mature and independent enough to live on your own at the age of 24. This study claims you strong enough to avoid temptation, make the right decisions and actually have the urge to make something out of your life.
Most of my relatives had kids before the age of 24. I always thought this was absurd, trading in your best years, your twenties, for something that could easily wait till my thirties. The fear of wasting my best years are always haunting me. What if I wasted my best nights? Getting hungover, making bad decisions and regretting everything the next morning. I mean, that’s what those years are all about right? Those are the years you create the good stories you tell your kids. The years to be selfish. How can you live your life to the fullest, when your children will take first priority? I’ve never understood that.
That was until my friends and I turned 24 this year. It’s like everyone is getting the same memo: It’s time. Time to build up something you can call home. Time to make sure your relationship is going in the right direction and make real plans for having kids in the next view years. While I sat at my best friends 24th birthday party, I realized we were all thinking about that memo. I always felt bad about the 26-year-old woman who tried so hard finding the perfect relationship because they wanted a family before they turned 30. And we all know relationships take time. And they were running out of it. I’ve never understood. Now, I do. Laughing about bad dates turned in to serious instructions about the same combination microwave they own. I felt a great urge to disagree with The Memo.
I’m only twenty-four. Don’t we have enough time left to build up that part of our lives? Can’t we be selfish just a little while longer? But trying to convince my friends that it’s still totally acceptable to be hungover at work at our age was pointless. In your twenty-something years your busy working on your carrier. The work life had taken over. They had to, they have a home to pay for. That’s avoiding temptation, that’s what you do when you’re an adult. The thing I’m so afraid of is slowly becoming reality. Now the question is: Am I afraid of moving to fast, or is everyone else afraid of standing still?