In the weeks leading up to my 18th birthday last year, I was told everything changes when you turn eighteen. I was going to be legal which entailed a whole load of “perks.”

I could buy a gun.

I could buy a lottery ticket.

I could vote in the 2016 Presidential Election.

I could get my drivers license.

I could book a hotel room.

I could get married.

It felt exciting and thrilling. The first exciting birthday you experience is thirteen because you get to call yourself a teenager. The second is sixteen because it's “sweet.” And then there is eighteen. Wooohooo.

I’m about to burst that bubble.

First of all when I woke up that cold Friday morning in December, I felt a little rush of excitement and then it ended. I still felt the same. I wasn’t an entirely new person; I was just a year older. And I was a year older with a load of responsibilities that I would not see coming for a few months. All my friends who were still seventeen thought I was super impressive. I was older and I was legal.

Over the next few months, I was able to do some of the things that come with being legal. I registered to vote and voted in the New York State primary elections. I bought a lottery ticket. It was a cool experience, I won’t lie about that. But it still wasn’t making eighteen as exciting as I thought it would be.

And then it dawned on me: being eighteen was less about the perks and more about the growing up. I had unconsciously grown up and stopped making decisions that my younger self would be fully on board for. I was making decisions about when to go out, I was getting more focused on my future (I would be starting college in a few short months) and my respect for my parents was growing. I was an adult and I was truly starting to feel it. Responsibility was knocking on my door and I HAD to open it.

So here’s my advice to those about to turn eighteen: Don’t blow it. Don’t think all high and mighty of yourself now that you are eighteen. Accept the responsibility that now bestows upon you. Yes, you are legal now and no longer a minor. It’s time to grow up and prepare for the rest of your adult life.

I am a week away from my nineteenth birthday and I am excited. But I am also ready to be another year older and enter my last year of my teenage years. Throw whatever you have at me world, I am ready!