Editorial
Rusty Strait | Senior Reporter
So you are now eighteen and nobody can tell you what to do anymore. You suddenly know it all and life as an adult is the greatest thing that ever happened. Not so fast my friend.
You want to move out of the family home. Get your own place – that’s the ticket. Now you can party all night with your buddies, start the next day with a hang-over, take a couple of aspirin and launch a new day in freedom. So you think.
A big word suddenly pops into your new adult head. RESPONSIBILITY! Going out into the adult world isn’t going to be all that peachy. The abode you choose, the utility bills, no one around to make sure you get up in the morning and sit down at the breakfast table with bacon, eggs and toast on the house. You’re an adult now. Food, like rent, is expensive. All those stylish clothes in the closet cost a bundle. Next comes the onus of all those menial tasks that somebody else (your mother) took care of daily.
Not to worry, you tell yourself. I’ll get a job. In no time, you’re flipping hamburgers for minimum wage. Unless you excel in a scholarship, you won’t make it to college. Mom and Dad, unless they are in the one percent of wealth, may not be able to afford a college life. Your style of living may have suddenly diminished. You can’t afford an apartment and that single room furnished is more like a cell than a home.
You never thought of yourself as a pedophile but those girls from high school are now minors. Gotta be careful about “contributing to the delinquency of a minor,” which may take on a new meaning to you—hadn’t thought about that?
Adulthood has other disadvantages for an eighteen-year-old. Mom and Dad can’t bail you out of the troubles you may encounter. Did you forget? You’re an adult now. Everyday problems adults meet suddenly feel like a sledgehammer pounding on your back. Life is turning into a prison camp with all the forced responsibilities of adulthood. You start to think about life in the past and now and in the future.
You are now starting to recant life as a teenager pre-adulthood. You begin to think that maybe not being so anxious to become “an adult” needs some preparation. Just stop and think before you jump into the life of an adult and the transition can be beautiful. Remember, it took nine months before you even became a person. You had to do a lot of learning even before you entered kindergarten. If you do it right, transiting from kid to adult can be a beautiful experience if you approach it correctly. For instance, you had to learn how to drive a car. Think of the joy that it brought.
Being out alone will be stepping up to bat in the major leagues for the first time. You will learn responsibilities you never had as a teenager. You will make new friends, be able to vote, watch x-rated videos, pay taxes and sign your own legal documents.
Becoming an adult can be a wonderful experience if you take one step at a time, learning from the bottom up. If you try to start at the top, the higher you start, the farther you have to fall and all your illusions about adulthood will crash down like the proverbial ton of bricks. Just sayin’
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