Eighteen is an age everyone seems to look forward to. The age when teens can buy a lottery ticket, get a tattoo, and where it finally feels like you are “free.” The thing most fear though as their eighteenth birthday approaches is one word: adulthood. It seems to come out of nowhere, at least, for me it did. This is where some people say that they feel like their youth is coming to an end when in all reality, it is just the beginning. Eighteen is the age where you can begin to make life-changing decisions, some that even impact the world. This is the age where teens can register to vote, will be graduating, and choosing what they want to do with their lives; some will also be getting their license or renting/buying their first home on their own. All huge decisions, some may even say scary.
Nothing about becoming an adult is scary, it’s just another part of life beginning. People get to vote at this age, to have a say in who represents them as an American. This is the age students usually graduate and choose a college to attend, which sounds terrifying to choose one field to conform to, but that’s not how it should feel. Things change, it is okay to change your major, change the school you chose to attend. It is okay to change everything that you thought you had to suddenly decide because you became an adult. Eighteen is an age where life seems to finally open up; don’t worry, it is only just the beginning of what adulthood has to offer. If you’re a scared eighteen-year-old like me, here’s something that I try to remember when I get overwhelmed with being a new adult: nothing that you decide now is set and stone, your life is only beginning.
By: Shyann Finefrock