Adulthood

I'm eighteen, I'm an adult, I can do what I want. I can get a tattoo. I can pierce my body. I can go bungee jumping, I can skydive. I can change my name, I can buy fireworks.
I don't have to ask my mom if I can do any of these things. I can just go out and do them.

I can buy tobacco products, I can gamble. I can go to a strip club, I can buy porn. I can serve alcohol.

I can be convicted as an adult and go to real adult jail. I can sue someone and be sued. I can buy a lottery ticket. I can purchase a hotel room, I can get a loan. I can drive at any time.

With a license I can carry a weapon.
I can enlist in the military. I can vote.
I can buy those moronic devises off of info-mercials. 

I can legally do all of these "adult" things. However, the way I feel about my personal freedom or my sense of self-sufficiency hasn't changed in the slightest. What this list feels like is exactly what it is, a list. Applying it to my life is proving to be difficult, because I don't picture myself any different at all.

I still have little to no adult responsibilities, I live rent free, I don't pay for insurance, I still hug my parents before going to bed. As a matter of fact I feel younger, just the other day I had a Disney movie day with my dad. Call it a mid-life crisis. 

I've cleared my own path and made choices for myself for some time now, long before the state labeled me as an adult. But I was looking forward to the added responsibility of this title; however, now that I have it, it has lost its appeal.
Now, when I screw up, I'm no longer a child, and I should know better. I don't want to be seen as incompetent or misunderstood by my fellow adults. I should know how to do adult things like change a tire, claim my taxes, or manage my bank account. But the truth is, I still need help.

Maybe in August, when I finally start college, I'll feel like I need less help. Maybe I'll feel more like an adult. After all I'll be living on my own, paying my own way (mostly.) Because I can, maybe I'll eat cake for breakfast every day, or pull all-nighters with my friends. I think that that final sense of freedom, the feeling that I am in complete control of my life, will be my indication of adulthood. Not the fact that I can smoke, or vote, or whatever it may be. Those things are what I am told makes me an adult.

In my opinion, most of that list, (aside from the obviously commendable items, such as military enrollment or voting) should not be labeled "adult" perks but childish mistakes. Before I go and tattoo "I <3 Johnny" on my arm or triple pierce my eyebrow, maybe it would be smart to consider the long term consequences. Like the fact that both of those things will not look appealing within the next thirty years. A lot of students who are just turning 18 aren't thinking about how much of a regret this could potentially be.

Even though this uneventful "landmark" of turning 18 has been somewhat of a letdown, after all is said and done, I know that only I can determine what sets me apart among student my age. Because I am an adult, I will make the grown up decision of resisting the urge to do some of the things on that list just because "I can." 

1 Corinthians 2:6 
"We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing."

2 Corinthians 1:12
"Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity and godly sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace."