When we’re young, there’s a mantra that we continually curse at our parents as we let them force us to do cruel things like go to bed at a specific time or eat our veggies, that we shout when they tell us that we have to take a shower because we haven’t showered in almost a week, that we cry when they’re dragging us off to school with backpacks we painstakingly picked out even though the first day was always dreaded: the parent’s dreaded chant of: “I can’t wait till I turn 18!”
Almost a year ago, last March, I had the pleasure of finally getting my dues and stepping into adulthood. I cascaded into this new era with a new found sense of rebellion with the event of getting my first tattoo, and after, going to see a show revolving around adults. It was exhilarating, hitting the year that I had been anticipating for what seemed like ages, and then, in only a few months, I was going to graduate from High School. Adulthood and responsibilities were being handed down to me days after I grew into this golden age, and nothing could have been better.
Because of this, I have coalesced a group of the greatest reasons why turning 18, and essentially, becoming a legal adult, is great, and why everyone should continue shouting at the top of their lungs: “I can’t wait till I’m 18!”
1. You finally get to make your own decisions!
Now that you’re 18, the word of your parents no longer means a thing. When they tell you to be home at a certain time, you can laugh at them and remind them that you are now an adult, you call your own shots. They can no longer tell you to go to school, or when to shower, or when to eat. You can shower once a month if you desire, eat only cake and ice cream for dinner and breakfast for the rest of your days!!! Do you need their advice any longer? Heck no, you’re an adult! Your parents’ advice provides no match for the grand vat of knowledge that you’ve acquired over the years in your high school that doesn’t even force you to learn how to do taxes. But, ha, taxes, you’re an adult now, you’d be able to do them in your sleep because adults do them all the time, so no worries! Also, because you’re 18, your parents don’t have to do your laundry anymore, cook your meals, buy your clothes, buy your school supplies, and they certainly don’t have to provide you with money for your own splurges; how exciting!
2. You get to make your own appointments!
The moment the clock announces your official transition into the adult world, you’re finally left to your own devices! No more embarrassing phone calls from your parents when you need to go to the doctor, the eye doctor, the dentist or anywhere with official documents — now that’s all up to you! Since you’re now an adult, you no longer have to deal with your parents babying you when you wake up sick, which is good since you always hated that. You’re no longer a child, so now they don’t have to fetch you medicines and all the good things that keep you alive. Instead, you’ll get to buy them on your own, and even better, you get to pick up the phone to make an appointment to see your doctor. Even when you’re not sick, you’re now the ruler of your own domain, meaning you get to call about all kinds of appointments, and even insurance! Which now that you’re 18 is all left up to you! Isn’t being an adult great? Making adult appointments is totally fun! Filling out official documents on your own is a blast!
3. The great thing called credit!
Being 18, and officially an adult, it’s time to learn how to be financially stable. Of course, since you’ve been around adults your entire life, it won’t be much work right? Adults do things with money all the time, no worries! Taxes, not a problem! Balancing a checkbook? Don’t even know what that is, but adult years will handle that for you! Even better, now is the time you get to finally delve into that wonderfully mystical thing that your parents always talked about: credit! Everyone uses credit cards and now you can too! You can sign up for as many as you want, and the more you sign up for, the more your chances of creating a bomb resume with credit is high! You know all about credit because your parents conversed about it a lot, so there will be nothing to worry about. Money that you can spend even when you don’t have it in your pocket or bank account, how cool! Who needs to know any more than that? It’s not like just one mistake will ruin your credit forever leaving you struggling to buy houses and apartments and cars and get loans. No worries!
4. No more school (or more school)!
Mostly everyone turns 18 right before high school ends, or right after high school ends, obviously making it the best birthday ever! No more school, no more teachers, no more getting up at six in the morning every day — what bliss! Of course, some people still decide to go back to school, choosing to opt for college. This means four more years of school, but at least you still don’t have to wake up early! Though, you might still choose to do morning classes in college because you woke up early all the time for high school, so it will be easy to get right back into, yeah? Getting the chance to finally go to college is awesome! Not only are you an adult, you’re also surrounded by other new adults, all basking in your great new-adultness, reveling in the beauties of being on your own, living with loans, and getting to choose what you do at all times of day. You know what this means? Parties! Other students do parties and homework, so there it’s no biggie—you got this in the bag.
5. You get to apply for student loans!
One of the best things about going to college is applying for loans. It’s the best because you get to exercise your right of being an adult by applying for loans over thousands of dollars. This is where credit can come into play! Sure, you don’t have much, but that can’t affect your applications too much, right? Taking out loans shows that you’re an adult because now your parents aren’t paying for everything — you are! And loans won’t be that hard to pay off after school, I mean, look at all the adults who had student loans and seem to be doing well! You’ll fall right into that category. You got this, dude!
6. You can finally get a job!
Now that you get credit, and because you’re an adult who will be going to college/planning to move out, you get to look for jobs! Of course, others may have had the pleasure of getting a job before they were 18, in which case, they can skip down to number seven. If not, here’s a few great things about the job hunt and getting a job at the age of 18! Employers are great! They’re looking for people to fill their jobs, and hopefully, you’ll be one of them. Your 12 years of school, with your sports and A’s are definitely going to help you nab that job that hundreds of other people are looking for. You probably don’t need 20 years of experience; I promise you that! Once you finally land a job — which you will, one day — you’re going to love every second of it. It’s fact that once you leave high school the best jobs are just waiting in the wings for you to pick up. You won’t be doing dishes for hours on end, dealing with customers who don’t like you or don’t respect you, and it absolutely will not be boring. You’ll never want to leave! Also, most employers care about how much they work their employees, so you’ll probably get lots of time off to work on homework and classes and such. They’ll love giving you time off for you to go out and enjoy yourself! If they didn’t, that would be mean, and being an adult is supposed to be fun, isn’t it?
7. You get to move out on your own!
Whether it’s moving on campus or just moving out in general, it’s a big step in finally being that adult you’ve always wanted to be!!! How exciting is it to know that you’ll be in charge of paying for rent, utilities, groceries and everything else you want, all on your own account? Nothing yells adulthood more than that! Credit plays a big part in getting an apartment, so hopefully your credit is great — which obviously it’s gotta be— you’re an adult, they all have great credit. With this, you get to finally save up money to put money down on an apartment, something your parents had to do once too! Twinsies!
8. You finally get to vote!
Being 18 hands you the large responsibility of being able to vote, which of course you’ve been excited to do for years! You love responsibility and now you’re able to have all of it that you want. Of course, since you’re an adult, you can make the decision not to register to vote, and we’ll all respect it — adults make their own choices after all! Not like people didn’t fight years ago just for the right to vote! You definitely don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, pshaw!! If you do decide to register to vote, way to go! Now you have to pay attention to politics and candidates and make sure you make good decisions, which of course you will because you’re an adult who had 12 years of teaching that did not lie to you at all and that undeniably left you feeling like you have a good handle on people from a 30 second video! Remember, you’re positively not the future of the country!
9. The wonderfully vast future.
And, speaking of the future, guess what’s looming ahead of you at every moment when you turn 18. As a child, you always thought of the future as being 18, now that you’re 18, your future is getting out of college, getting a job, paying rent, paying for student loans, buying a house, finding a spouse, having children and eventually retirement and death! Having all that weight on your shoulders is certainly a work out, but good thing you’re an adult, it’s true that adults know how to deal with any and all things handed to them. See, isn’t being an adult great!
10. You get to watch R-rated movies without your mom!!!
Honestly, completely non-sarcastically, this is the only thing great about being an adult. Ignore any and everything people tell you, you’re only going to be happy being able to hear swear words and seeing nudity on the screen without needing your mom with you or sneaking in. Also, you can buy all those great Rated M games without an adult too, leading to more entertainment that you’re going to need with the crushing weight of your eventual death on your head!
Turning 18 is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me, and to many others as well! We don’t spend our nights crying ourselves to sleep, and we all can’t wait for the days that we finally have to begin paying back the hundreds of thousands of dollars that we have in student loans. We’ve been waiting for this day since we were children, exclaiming that we just couldn’t wait to turn 18, so it would be ridiculous for us to complain about being adults now!
Everyone over 18 will agree, they love the adult life. And none of us miss living with our parents, or having our moms tuck us in, having home cooked meals when we get back from class — and ugh, we definitely do not miss having our parents do stuff for them, watching movies with them or any of that gross bonding time.
We love our lives. And after this, I’m definitely not going to go cry in my dorm by myself under blankets clutching my worn-out stuffed Goofy.
Yay for being 18!
