Happy Birthday To Me
Today is my 18th birthday. I am, in the eyes of the law, a legal adult and therefore responsible for myself and my actions.
So how come I don't feel any different? It's strange; yesterday I was seventeen, still a 'child', and today I'm an adult. Does one day really make that much difference? If I had committed a crime yesterday, would I have been any less responsible? If I had had a few drinks, would I have acted any less stupid? If there was an election yesterday, would i be any more informed today to make a decision about who should lead my country? I don't know.
I know that it's a silly thought, that the legal system has to set an age at which a person is responsible, and that anniversary of their birth is the day that they are given the responsibility of an adult. One day hasn't made this difference, eighteen years of living and breathing and learning have made me the (theoretically) responsible "adult" that I now officially am, according to my birth certificate.
I know all of this, but i still wonder.
So how come I don't feel any different? It's strange; yesterday I was seventeen, still a 'child', and today I'm an adult. Does one day really make that much difference? If I had committed a crime yesterday, would I have been any less responsible? If I had had a few drinks, would I have acted any less stupid? If there was an election yesterday, would i be any more informed today to make a decision about who should lead my country? I don't know.
I know that it's a silly thought, that the legal system has to set an age at which a person is responsible, and that anniversary of their birth is the day that they are given the responsibility of an adult. One day hasn't made this difference, eighteen years of living and breathing and learning have made me the (theoretically) responsible "adult" that I now officially am, according to my birth certificate.
I know all of this, but i still wonder.