Tell me, at what point in life do we stop being treated like kids, and start being treated like adults? Senior year of high school? You’re 18, you’ve graduated, it’s then right?

Wrong. Is it when you begin college, when you’re enrolled at a college or university, when you have your major picked out and you are heading down the path of your future?

Nope. Is there some kind of checklist you need to go through, things you have to have accomplished before these expressions go away and we can share our thoughts without fear of judgement or criticism?

When are we finally old enough to have adult conversations, to be looked at as equals, to not have to face condescending tones and looks that say “you’re just a kid, you wouldn’t understand.” To be clear, I’m not talking about being old enough to have “grown-up” conversations with people our own age, but with those who are older than us.

To have conversations with the people who think they know it all, and that think that we don’t know anything. I hate to break it to these people, but we are the next generation; if we don’t know anything, if you can’t have conversations with us, the future doesn’t look too bright, does it?

Sure, you may be older in years, but that doesn’t mean a thing. Just because I’m twenty years old doesn’t mean I haven’t been through things that have had to force me to grow up too quickly, or that I “haven’t been around long enough to know” what certain things may be like.

Every single person in this world has been through their own ordeals, and to discount what someone has to say because of their age, or because you think that you have more “experience” or just “know better,” is downright awful.

If you are allowed to say whatever you want, why can’t I? We are taught to respect our elders, but no one says anything about respecting the youth as well. Newsflash: we are the next generation of “elders;” maybe it’s time to treat us as equals, and show us some respect.