For real, how do you actually know when exactly you’ve made the transition from young adulthood to adulthood? Is being an adult equal to being a grown up? At what particular time do we decide we have become grown-ups?
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This question is on everyone’s lips nowadays. The paradigm has shifted. Today, having a full-time job and a place to live by yourself don’t actually make you a grown-up. The millennial generation is not very keen on labels and doesn’t rush to be classified into categories.
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Despite the common definition of adulthood as having a family, job stability or own a house, people have different opinions on what makes someone an adult. Let’s face it, at this moment in time, there are folks who don’t get their hands on these things not even by the time they’re 40. Because it’s darn difficult to earn enough money and build a career this day, let alone have a kid, buy a house or create a financial plan. Does having responsibilities ultimately mean you’re a grown-up?
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According to Buzzfeed, being tired all the time, calling your parents just to check up on them or taking pride in paying your bills on time are some of the things that describe a grown-up.
The same burning question was on the lips of The Atlantic, which asked people on the street what they consider to be the moment you actually become a grown-up. Here are some of the responses:
1. When you have kids
2. When you pay your taxes
3. When your mom is the last person that you call
4. When you’re being responsible for yourself
5. When you have the maturity and examples to pass down to others
6. When you own a washing-machine
7. When you consider sleeping to be the best weekend ever
8. When you look forward to bedtime
9. When you lose your imagination, when you are depressed
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While the kids’ answers were a lot more predictable: growing-up is when you’re taller or when you’re twenty, which probably were our exact same words when we were little. Becoming an adult implied making your own decisions and being free to do exactly what you want. We believed it’s great to be a grown-up. Or at least I did. That was naive on my part.
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But maybe that’s particularly one of the recurrent problems of a grown-up: now that one can do whatever one pleases on this Earth, will one make the best decisions, will one take full advantage of their potential? Will one have the wisdom to pass on to next generations?
I think there’s no need to tag ourselves. Maybe some of us are conceived to remain children at heart for as long as we can. Maybe we meet all the requirements for being grown-ups but inside we definitely do not feel like one.
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