Why We Only Call Ourselves That When It's Convenient
At an open mic the other night, I was talking to my brother (age 23) about some slightly inappropriate content in a song he planned to perform in his set. He said to me, “Luckily most of the adults are gone.”
As I looked around the room, the youngest person in the audience was about 16, and the oldest was about 30. I responded, “Yeah it’s weird to consider ourselves adults, huh?” He quickly added, “Well yeah we’re adults but you know what I meant, the gray-haired ones.”
As I looked around the room, the youngest person in the audience was about 16, and the oldest was about 30. I responded, “Yeah it’s weird to consider ourselves adults, huh?” He quickly added, “Well yeah we’re adults but you know what I meant, the gray-haired ones.”
For most 20-somethings, it’s the gray-haired ones who are the adults until they try to tell you not to wear a certain shirt or go out on a Wednesday night. The gray-haired ones are the only adults in the room until they start to treat us like children. Then we’re quick to say, “Mom, I’m 20 years old, when you are going to start treating me like an adult?”
The better question is, when will we start treating ourselves like adults?
In the U.S. the word “adult” usually refers to someone over the age of 18. These people can vote, buy tobacco products, serve in the military voluntarily, get married without permission, and a whole host of other privileges. These people are also held to higher standards, judged more harshly by law, and, legally, are not the responsibility of anyone but themselves.
But it’s not the drawbacks of adulthood that make us young 20-somethings hesitant to label ourselves as adults.
We’ve been told for most of our lives that we have to sit at the kids’ table. Our parents still refer to our generation as “you young kids nowadays.” And most importantly, the divide in culture, technology use, and even ideas on social issues between our generation and our parents’ and grandparents’ generations makes us quick to separate ourselves from “adults.”
Perhaps we balk at the word “adult” because it doesn’t describe our values, our culture, or even our outlook on life. I certainly see the world differently than my parents.
So maybe it’s not a bad thing to separate ourselves from the “adults” we know. That way we’ll aspire to be better, more successful, and more open-minded than they are. That’s called progress, right?
The better question is, when will we start treating ourselves like adults?
In the U.S. the word “adult” usually refers to someone over the age of 18. These people can vote, buy tobacco products, serve in the military voluntarily, get married without permission, and a whole host of other privileges. These people are also held to higher standards, judged more harshly by law, and, legally, are not the responsibility of anyone but themselves.
But it’s not the drawbacks of adulthood that make us young 20-somethings hesitant to label ourselves as adults.
We’ve been told for most of our lives that we have to sit at the kids’ table. Our parents still refer to our generation as “you young kids nowadays.” And most importantly, the divide in culture, technology use, and even ideas on social issues between our generation and our parents’ and grandparents’ generations makes us quick to separate ourselves from “adults.”
Perhaps we balk at the word “adult” because it doesn’t describe our values, our culture, or even our outlook on life. I certainly see the world differently than my parents.
So maybe it’s not a bad thing to separate ourselves from the “adults” we know. That way we’ll aspire to be better, more successful, and more open-minded than they are. That’s called progress, right?