NationStates Jolt Archive

Or woman*?

Basically, since when have you, the folk of NSG, thought of yourselves as adults? In a more general sense, at what point would you consider someone else an adult? Once they reach the age of consent, or having a certain event happen to them(loss of virginity** or something like that)? Or something less definable, like reaching a certain level of maturity?







*Does not include transformations from one gender to another. Think of it as more "When did you become an adult" if you must.
**See other thread for an assortment of details on what one must do to lose one's virginity

on my 18th birthday

not fully an adult until 21.

Personally, I'm not quite sure yet where I am. For those who care and don't know, I'm 20.

I'm 20, though it's really hard to say when one becomes a man... Though I think I'm well on my way, what with the whole breaking away from the family and going out on my own over a thousand miles away thing.

I was an adult at 15.

When I walked down some roads. I wasn't sure how many, so I walked down 100 just to be safe.

I was once a man.

I'm 20, and I still don't consider myself an adult. I don't feel that much different now to when I was 13 or 14!

When I walked down some roads. I wasn't sure how many, so I walked down 100 just to be safe.

Beaten to it.

I think maybe between 24 and 25. Basically, when you're not in the college, and a bit after, when you're steady on your feet.

But maybe not entirely yet (I'm 28), I didn't have to make many enough tough choices in my life - pretty much got a "cradle to grave" deal - and making tough choices is what makes one a man. However, I do feel distinctively different, so there's no serious doubt. It's impossible to be a man while in the college, it's the most maturity-repellent environment of them all.

But I'm sure this age is lower for people who take a path with less education and start living on their own earlier.

I think maybe between 24 and 25. Basically, when you're not in the college, and a bit after, when you're steady on your feet.

But maybe not entirely yet (I'm 28), I didn't have to make many enough tough choices in my life - pretty much got a "cradle to grave" deal - and making tough choices is what makes one a man. However, I do feel distinctively different, so there's no serious doubt. It's impossible to be a man while in the college, it's the most maturity-repellent environment of them all.

But I'm sure this age is lower for people who take a path with less education and start living on their own earlier.

I had to start working at 18 to stay alive, and I've yet to go to college (but I'm going to start soon). I've no doubt that my level of maturity will be quite a bit above that of the average college student.

July 2005, just after the operation.

I was once a man.

Not once, twice, three times a lady?

In retrospect, I don't think I became a fully-mature functioning human being until I hit 30. 18-29 was just an extended adolescence.

The day I was asked to hunt and kill another human being. Life altering event.

Personally, as a being that constantly grows in many different ways, I find it hard to say where I have become an adult and where I may have transcended that definition. I do consider myself adult, simply because other people consider my age to be an adult age. But I don't think this definition is important. If they wanted something more biological, it should be the time when one completes physical maturation. Outside of that, I think the definition is either legal or sociological, which are all things we just make up anyway.

I simply couldn't create a sociological definition for an adult when the human is always maturing.

I think it's different for everybody. But I think it starts when one is asked to do a task that a man would normally do. For some that may be getting kicked out of the house at 16 and having to grow up rather quick in order to survive in society. For others it may be after years of post-secondary education, finally out in the real world. And then to others as Rhalellan pointed out:

The day I was asked to hunt and kill another human being. Life altering event.

For me it was when I was 18, I started working up in the oil patch as a swamper (less than dirt) on truck. I had to work my way up from the very bottom an earn the respect of other men in the company and industry. I quit that job a year and a half later and by that time I had truck of my own, I was training other new guys, and felt I was respected by the guys in the company.

But then I've seen guys work for our company and others much older than me who've worked in the industry longer than I have and I'd still consider them juvenile and not a man. Sometimes the dumbass doesn't come out of the kid.

I started feeling old the week before I turned 20.

Sometime when I was 20.

When I walked down some roads. I wasn't sure how many, so I walked down 100 just to be safe.

Just because we can call you a man doesn't mean we will.

Probably the day I first caught myself referring to college students as "kids." :tongue:

Probably the day I first caught myself referring to college students as "kids." :tongue:

You became and Man before that time! :p

I stopped being a boy and became a man after having loved, then lost. I was roughly 21 around that time.

It's really kind of a useless distinction. In some areas I was an adult before I reached puberty - since my parents were too busy fighting with each other to pay much attention to me, I more or less had the responsibility of raising myself. Oh, mom cooked and did laundry as well as bringing home a paycheck; dad pretty much did as he pleased. My ethical upbringing was pretty much my responsibility. So adulthood came in stages, finally culminating in the day my ex- left me with two kids to raise. I was 28, my kids were 3 and 4. So, yeah, I guess I had full adulthood forced on me at the age of 28.

"Adult" is as meaningless a definition as "virgin".
In its crudest form, adult is supposedly a person that can make and understand its own actions/words and their consequences.
But that is at most a shallow way of confirming "maturity".
No one can fully understand what will follow their doings.

I believe that to be an "adult" is to have a certain level of "maturity." That an "adult" has an open mind and non-judgemental. I believe "adults" are capable of agreeing to disagree and looking the other way if they see a non-harmful activity they disagree with. I believe that an "adult" would want to be invisible in most ways in life, and only opt to be visible in ways that would help them promote their own security, provided, of course, that obtaining their own security does not cause harm unto others.

In short, I believe an "adult" is true neutral to chaotic neutral alignment. They don't care what others do as long as it doesn't effect them. They care about their significant others because it does effect them, and they'll do anything for anyone who will do anything for them.

It sounds odd, and harsh, but that's how I see things.

Or woman*?

Basically, since when have you, the folk of NSG, thought of yourselves as adults? In a more general sense, at what point would you consider someone else an adult? Once they reach the age of consent, or having a certain event happen to them(loss of virginity** or something like that)? Or something less definable, like reaching a certain level of maturity?







*Does not include transformations from one gender to another. Think of it as more "When did you become an adult" if you must.
**See other thread for an assortment of details on what one must do to lose one's virginity

I'd say... round about age 32.

I wouldn't consider myself an adult yet and it really hit me last Saturday on a friends 25th (old people having money ftw) and I was like "WTF all I can think about is how I'm going to sooo play red alert when I get back home"

I figure its something that comes with being serious all the time so fuck that

SNIP

so I'm not the only one who finds the working class quaint

I wouldn't consider myself an adult yet and it really hit me last Saturday on a friends 25th (old people having money ftw) and I was like "WTF all I can think about is how I'm going to sooo play red alert when I get back home"

I figure its something that comes with being serious all the time so fuck that


so I'm not the only one who finds the working class quaint

No, it doesn't come with being serious all the time. It comes with knowing when to be serious and when to play. I believe it's called "appropriate behavior." So, yeah, you can be serious about work, take responsibility for yourself and your dependents and still look forward to playing. You just know when to make the distinctions and don't try to run away from responsibility, even when you absolutely, desparately want to.

In some ways, I 'grew up' most around 17-19, but then I'm still at uni and would rather you ask me when I've left and have been working for a few years.

Probably the day I first caught myself referring to college students as "kids." :tongue:It happened to me the first time a student called me "Sir". I was in my forties, but I still wasn't ready. I was all like, "Hey Dude, invite me to your party, I'll show ya, I'm a real swinging cat!"

Legally I became an adult at age 18.

Practically? Huh. I honestly can't say. Maybe around the mid-20ies to late 20ies. If so...

Grown up? Still waiting for that to happen!

Historically speaking, males were generally considered adults at about 16.

I'm 24, I don't consider myself an adult... Adults and Grown Ups are lawyers and accountants.

I suppose I may have become an adult when I became a father at 16. But then there are times I still act like a kid.

How does one define adult? We could say they are legally adults when they reach a certain age but are the adults in terms of maturity?

Of course we must also define on what makes and adult? Is it maturity? Is it knowing when to stop? IS it being able to loko after yourself?

What is it my friends? What?

I became And Man at the age of 16, when I was accidentally exposed to a radioactive grammar textbook. Since then, I have traveled the world conjoining clauses, phrases, ideas and words.

EDIT: I wasn't aware so many other people had also become And Man. It makes me feel kind of silly being the only who wears mauve spandex.

Getting married tends to put a damper on what kind of man you thought you were.
Having kids reinforces that.

You're an adult the first time you freely decide to do something you'd really rather not do.

You're an adult the first time you freely decide to do something you'd really rather not do.
If you'd really rather not do it, than it isn't freely decided; you're coerced into it by a sense of honor or obligation.

I would say it was when I moved out of my parents house.

Now, I don't consider myself a full adult as I am not entirely self-sufficient and financially independent, but that was the major step...becoming responsible for my actions.

becoming responsible for my actions.Isn't that why you wanna knock back the bottle so often? :p

Isn't that why you wanna knock back the bottle so often? :p

want to, or do?

I mean...um...

want to, or do?

I mean...um...I'm not really sure. Is there a difference?

You're an adult the first time you freely decide to do something you'd really rather not do.

lol, nice answer

If you'd really rather not do it, than it isn't freely decided; you're coerced into it by a sense of honor or obligation.

I wouldn't call it "coerced", but you're right in that it isn't necessarily a "free" choice either...

...but I wouldn't call anyone an adult who has no sense of honor or obligation to someone/something other than themselves.

Age means nothing. You are an adult when by comparison your parents, or guardians if that's the case, act like children.

And by that standard I became an adult at 15.

What if they never do? You stay a kid forever?

I became And Man at the age of 16, when I was accidentally exposed to a radioactive grammar textbook. Since then, I have traveled the world conjoining clauses, phrases, ideas and words.

EDIT: I wasn't aware so many other people had also become And Man. It makes me feel kind of silly being the only who wears mauve spandex.

Curse you Fiddly! I was drunk, leave me alone.

Or woman*?

Basically, since when have you, the folk of NSG, thought of yourselves as adults? In a more general sense, at what point would you consider someone else an adult? Once they reach the age of consent, or having a certain event happen to them(loss of virginity** or something like that)? Or something less definable, like reaching a certain level of maturity?

Well the age of consent is an arbitrary, but necessary, number. I felt perfectly capable of consenting to pretty much anything a year or two before the arbitrary age of 16 we have in the UK. And as we men never mature, and are proud of that fact, you can't really base it on that either.

I would say... as soon as you leave compulsory full-time education. You are effectively free to do whatever you want at that point, so your life becomes your own for the first time since you were born, effectively. So yeah, at the age of 16 I guess, is when I got control of my own life and started making my own decisions about my future.

Shit I would say probably not until I was close to 30. I don't consider an adult to be younger than 21.

Curse you Fiddly! I was drunk, leave me alone.
I'm sorry Ifreann, I'm afraid I can't do that.

I think I was between 23-24 when I suddenly became comfortable in my own skin. That, to me, was the point when I recognized I became an adult, a woman.

I became an Adult a few weeks ago, when I finally started to come out of my shell, and embrace some of the joys of life.

I'm sorry Ifreann, I'm afraid I can't do that.

You just can't keep your hands off a drunken Irishman, can you ;)

I don't consider myself an adult. That might have something to do with me being 14...

I think I was between 23-24 when I suddenly became comfortable in my own skin. That, to me, was the point when I recognized I became an adult, a woman.

I seem to have a problem of thinking of myself as a woman. I'm a grown up/adult sure.......I think.......maybe.

I think it's because.......I don't know why.

16. I got a job, had a car, paid bills, and taxes. Since then I haven't really had much of a need for my parents (though it could be argued that I didn't need them a lot of my life anyways)

I think I'm going to be avoiding the transition for as long as possible. With the aid of science if necessary.

I'm 16 and still consider myself a kid. Mature for my age sure. But their still alot I have to learn.

You just can't keep your hands off a drunken Irishman, can you ;)

Hah and you know what, I have offten witnessed the reverse. Yep drunken Irishmen not able to keep their hands off of, well anybody!

i have never thought of myself as other then the equal in sentience of any other living person. i don't really beilieve there is such a thing as childhood in any other sense then of the disadvantage of not yet having aquired a large enough data base of how the world you've been born into actually works, to hold your own in debate with others who have lived a bit longer.

partially this is do to, even before i was born, physically, having, in all of my dreams, been a fully functioning member of everyone, of 'society' in that sense. prenatal dream/memories of a world which had many things, ways of things being, tecnologically primarily, but socio-politically as well, that this one, that i've currently been born into and living in, didn't at the time i was born into it. some of which, these computers and internet, being one example, it has now, and others of which it has yet to develop, and appearently remains unlikely to in what remains of my, this, lifetime.

physically, on the other hand, i felt like i was still three, not mentally but physically only, until i was about ten and a half or so, but well, other then sexual imagination (i had that from about age four, maybe even age three), until i was maybe twelve, twelve until i was 16, 16 until i was 30, and in some ways, when i dream in sleep, i still see myself as being an ageless age between 16 and 30, though i'm now well twice that and of course adding more every year.

of course i also saw myself as something of a hermit/guru/aspiring to be wiseman, from about the age of 11 or 12 onward too. poor stupid ego, i still do, much as life keeps trying to tell me to know better.

well my spirit allies seem to keep telling me there's maybe some roll for this, or some aspect of my being related to it, maybe just this running of at the keyboard where everyone can see it, maybe why i feel so often so compelled to, or the example i radiate out to others arround me, which believe me, i'm not claiming nor pretending to be any kind of a saint, but i do, well i do try to be honest with myself and set the kind of example i'd like to see more of arround me too.

so have it either way, either i've never been a child, or i still am, but don't bother me with what you expect/assume that to mean, i'm just an eternal ageless awairness, as everyone else, or most everyone else, or many everyone else, probably, almost certainly, is also.

i have never thought of myself as other then the equal in sentience of any other living person. i don't really beilieve there is such a thing as childhood in any other sense then of the disadvantage of not yet having aquired a large enough data base of how the world you've been born into actually works, to hold your own in debate with others who have lived a bit longer.

partially this is do to, even before i was born, physically, having, in all of my dreams, been a fully functioning member of everyone, of 'society' in that sense. prenatal dream/memories of a world which had many things, ways of things being, tecnologically primarily, but socio-politically as well, that this one, that i've currently been born into and living in, didn't at the time i was born into it. some of which, these computers and internet, being one example, it has now, and others of which it has yet to develop, and appearently remains unlikely to in what remains of my, this, lifetime.

physically, on the other hand, i felt like i was still three, not mentally but physically only, until i was about ten and a half or so, but well, other then sexual imagination (i had that from about age four, maybe even age three), until i was maybe twelve, twelve until i was 16, 16 until i was 30, and in some ways, when i dream in sleep, i still see myself as being an ageless age between 16 and 30, though i'm now well twice that and of course adding more every year.

of course i also saw myself as something of a hermit/guru/aspiring to be wiseman, from about the age of 11 or 12 onward too. poor stupid ego, i still do, much as life keeps trying to tell me to know better.

well my spirit allies seem to keep telling me there's maybe some roll for this, or some aspect of my being related to it, maybe just this running of at the keyboard where everyone can see it, maybe why i feel so often so compelled to, or the example i radiate out to others arround me, which believe me, i'm not claiming nor pretending to be any kind of a saint, but i do, well i do try to be honest with myself and set the kind of example i'd like to see more of arround me too.

so have it either way, either i've never been a child, or i still am, but don't bother me with what you expect/assume that to mean, i'm just an eternal ageless awairness, as everyone else, or most everyone else, or many everyone else, probably, almost certainly, is also.

Whatever you say sir. Yet I just can't help feeling that when a person has to change the definition of a word to get his point across or to make his stance work, then thats a little like cheating innit.

Myself I belive that if you have reached the age of 21 then surly you have been a child.

Whatever you say sir. Yet I just can't help feeling that when a person has to change the definition of a word to get his point across or to make his stance work, then thats a little like cheating innit.

Myself I belive that if you have reached the age of 21 then surly you have been a child.

what is this meaning i'm supposed to have chainged?

(for that matter, have i ever seen any debate about anything anywhere in which all sides didn't?, but that of course is an entierly seperate question)

one does not need a word for a concept, that can be understood and shaired by others, to perceive that concept in one's own mind. this is where i disagree with paget entirely.

i KNOW conceptualization is not dependent on linguistic ability, because my dreams were filled with accurate tecnical detail, long before i began learning how to speak.

as witness to this, my first word, regretfully, was car. regretfully that it wasn't train or trolley.

and if you don't believe me you can ask my 89 year old mother too, we BOTH remember my saying it.

as for age, whatever age a person has reached, in THIS life, of course they have lived through every year younger then that to get there. i don't see this as any sort of proof of the existence of this mythological concept of childhood as anything other then not yet having accumulated as large a data base as one, hopefully does, as life and years go on.