Many teenagers that I know today are tired of being treated as children when they think they should be treated as adults. Endless debates are brought upon over this subject. But to get anywhere, we first must know the definition of an adult. Looking at the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, an adult is "a human being after an age (as 18) specified by law."
I am fourteen years old and I have been doing an "adult's" job since I was thirteen. My mother and father own an RV dealership, and I have watched them sell campers ever since I can remember. Gradually I have learned how to sell RV's, and to demonstrate to people how to operate their campers. I have been a big help to my parent's company.
However, if I were to go to another camper dealership to get a selling job, that dealership would not be allowed to give me a job. I am too "young", the politicians say, even though I have had lots of experience and could do just as well as any other "adult". It is illegal for a fourteen year old to sell. Why is this? If I can do the job, why should politicians be allowed to stop me? If I could get a job and support myself and be independent then shouldn't I be considered an adult?
Our ex-president Mr. William Clinton is an adult, right? He goes around having sexual relationships with other women while married, and lying about it. This is adult behavior? Sounds to me like he has a case of arrested maturity! And yet today's people trusted him to run our country. Little children looked up to him and want to some day be president of the United States like Mr. Clinton. What kind of adult is that?
So what king of magic number is eighteen? One day you are seventeen years, three hundred and sixty four days, twenty three hours, fifty nine minutes and fifty nine second, and then, in the next second poof!, like magic you are now an adult. Hip hip hooray! How much do you change in one second? How much do you change in days, weeks, months or even in a year? From what I know you change, not in seconds, days, weeks, months or years, but rather in your attitudes toward yourself, and other people, and life. So, if you are eighteen and have not developed mature attitudes and practices, how much of an "adult" are you. As much as a Bill Clinton?
Please do think about this, and please in your own mind decide when one should be considered an adult: a mature fourteen year old or an immature fifty year old? You decide!
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