Most people associate adulthood with turning 20 years old. However, at 18 years old, I can feel adolescence releasing its grip on me. Becoming an adult is a somewhat frightening experience. As a teenager, I had other people to blame for my choice in bad decisions and I had countless excuses to validate my mistakes. As adolescence slowly (but surely) creeps away from me, I am realizing that I am now solely responsible for what happens to me. I am responsible for my own decisions, both good and bad. I am responsible for my own mistakes. There are a few exceptions to this new "responsibility rule," but for the most part, adults are responsible for everything. Even though the responsibility bestowed upon an adult sounds like the scariest part of entering adulthood, it is not. The scariest part of entering adulthood is the realization that you are entering adulthood.
It did not hit me that I was approaching adulthood until weeks after my high school graduation. Like to most people, high school was my comfort zone. High school was the place where I had a familiar building to enter every morning, familiar people to speak to every day, and the confidence and comfort to become involved and free to express my leadership. Who knew high school would end so quickly? Apparently, not me! In the weeks following my graduation, I had the sudden realization that everything was about to change, and it did.
I no longer wake up every morning to trudge into the building I became familiar with. I am no longer living at my parents' house, I am now living on campus. I am no longer surrounded by familiar faces. I am now surrounded by the faces of people whose names I barely know. With college underway and the weeks passing, I am growing unattached from my high school memories and my high school friends, and they are being replaced with new ones. It seems that this all happened overnight.
Frankly, adulthood does happen overnight. It seems that adolescence lasted forever, but then I was tossed into adulthood overnight. At one moment, I was a teenager, depending on the guidance of my parents to make my decisions. I thought about living in the moment, rather than focusing all of my time on the future. I dreamed about being an adult, but never really considered what came with that role. While some people may still consider me a teenager, I feel like an adult. My perspective of life has shifted.
If I could give advice to all teenagers, I would say to value your adolescence. Once you become an adult, there is the expectation that you must have your life together and be on a clear path to stability and success. Ultimately, there is no time for experimentation. As a teenager, you are not expected to know what is best for you. You are given the time to explore and discover, but as an adult, you are expected to have landed at your destination already. Teenagers, embrace every high and low you encounter, and accept opportunities and become comfortable with imperfection. While adolescence is a wonderful experience, we all have to grow up eventually.
