What Is It About 20-Somethings?

The 20s are no longer considered just the age of adulthood to me. I consider them the age of independence along with selfishness, perhaps a healthy selfishness. A person can never get back a day of life, so why not spend it doing whatever you want. Once considered a legal “adult” by the government, people want to do just that. At this point in life, young people are just breaking free of their teenage identity and living for themselves. They are no longer under their parent’s guidance and restrictions. They have no kids and thus feel they have no responsibility to anyone but themselves. This lack of responsibility contributes to the lack of maturity. When a person is in their 20s, they experience the “sense of possibilities,” as spoke about in the article. There’s so much for them to experience and so many career and education options that they may not want to hinder by either getting married or having kids. While listening to the radio, I heard a discussion that stated that women who are single and childless make more money than those who are not. This is another societal influence on the rate of adulthood. Women and men feel as though they will have better opportunities by not settling down and starting families. In earlier times where they may not have been these responsibilities, men and women had to become independent earlier. Today, I feel that as young people we do not have to be so independent due to our parents and the government metaphorically holding our hand through life. As far as being dependent on our parents, allowing children to stay in foster care until 21 and remaining under our parent’s life insurance. I feel the article brings to light a very controversial subject when speaking about the level of maturity. It said that people “can drive at 16 but can not rent a car until 25 without some hefty surcharges.” How is it that age determines what we can be responsible for? How is setting the maturity level that is required for such things as driving? I believe it is impossible to deem someone a responsible adult by his or her age.