Yes, I may be 19 years old, but that still qualifies me as an adult. I don’t mean an adult as in a naïve individual who thinks turning 18 is the final technicality of being an adult. I mean being an adult as in you have taken responsibility for yourself and you know what you want in life. Often when individuals ask me what I want to do as a career, or where I see myself in a few years, I’m completely honest – basically an open book. I want to be a pediatric oncology surgeon after school, and I want a pomsky. I also want to travel the world with a man that loves and respects me as much as I do him, but hey – what do I know? I’m “only 19 years old.” I’m also tired of the statements that follow the aforementioned demeaning of age phrase.

1. “You have the rest of your life ahead of you.”

I honestly laugh when people tell me this, or I reply with, “Yeah, I know… but you never know what could happen.” Which is a very valid point in my book. Since I’ve been working in a hospital, dealing with direct patient care, I have had some absolutely bizarre cases, in which unavoidable incidents happen. Why wait to change the world, or why wait to figure life out “later” when you can do it now? Yeah, I’m only 19, but I don’t know if I have my entire life ahead of me. Nothing is ever 100 percent certain, including your next breath or morning. As exaggerated as that sounds, it’s true. I know what I want, and I will do everything in my power to go after it until I find myself successful.

2. “You’ll end up changing your mind a thousand times.”

This statement, while it could be true, is still highly unlikely. For anyone that is as tenacious as I am, once I have my mind set to something - I do it. I try to surround myself among supportive individuals, but of course everyone is entitled to their opinions and have had their own share of experiences and so on. However, in general, a simple “That sounds like a good plan” is all I need. There’s no call for unnecessary negativity.

3. “You’re too young to understand what’s going on.”

Actually, no I am not. Regardless of the situation at hand, most of the time it’s from protective parents, but let’s just all be honest with each other for a minute. If you were raised right, you can take on anything, right? You have the intellectual capacity to handle any situation with maturity, and make a smart decision based on what you know. I’m not a child anymore, and I can take whatever needs to be said or done. Let me in the loop people; help me to help you.

Of course, there’s other forms of these phrases, such as, “Enjoy your time as a teenager, stop trying to grow up so fast” and oppositely, we often hear, “Get ready for the real world.” Well, how am I supposed to get prepared and ready for the real world when the individuals I look up to, look down upon me? I get told that I’m only 19, but in a few months, I will be 20. Will everything change because I am no longer in my teens, or will it be “You’re only 20 years old”? Believe me when I say this, my mindset won’t change from 11:59 p.m. May 5^th to 12:00 a.m. May 6^th. I’ll still want to be a surgeon, own a pomsky, and travel the world with my currently non-existent SO.