People are supposed to be considered an adult at the age of eighteen but are they really? At the age of eighteen, you are able to move out, are able to drop out of school without parents’ permission, you can serve your country etc, but there are still many things that people are not allowed to do until they reach an older age such as buying alcohol or tobacco and renting a car, etc.
When you turn eighteen a lot of things come into play and some people don’t know how much one little thing can impact your life. You are legally able to be arrested and sentenced as an adult whereas at seventeen you wouldn’t have had to deal with as many consequences.
During the 1970s through the early 1980s, there was a very specific idea of what it meant to be an adult. It was to be married with a house and a child, but over time it’s changed and is different with everyone you ask. Some say eighteen and others from twenty-one to twenty-five.
Hunter Weickum, a senior, thinks the age you are finally an adult is twenty-five because the frontal cortex isn’t fully developed until you are twenty-five to thirty. Then Ms. McMechan a teacher from NC said it is twenty-one because we get a little experience before you turn eighteen so when you finally are that age and finding everything out. McMechan said twenty-one because if you went to college that’s around the age you figure everything out.
Multiple teachers and students have said that twenty-three or four is when they’re finally going to be considered an adult. They said this is because the age of smoking and drinking are both now twenty-one and a few years after that is when people truly start to mature.
There are people who say that if you are able to fight for your country you should be considered an adult. However, others believe that in order to be truly an adult you must also be on your own in your own house or apartment.
In retrospect you’re not allowed to rent a car until the age of twenty-five, but VroomVroomVroom.com says there are places underage people can rent a car, (depending on the state age limits) but they have to pay a fee and meet specific requirements.
Everyone’s opinions vary on the age you are considered an adult. The three most common seem to be eighteen, twenty-one and twenty-three, but the ages vary from sixteen to late twenties.