ADULTHOOD

I always thought that at the age of 18, one became an adult. I am not saying that one does not become an adult at that age, at least the law has that provision, but most of you will bear me witness and with experience being the best teacher, you are never an adult until you clock 20.

I come from a family of five and I am the firstborn. To elaborate on what am saying, I was the guinea pig of the family. I had no elder brother or sister to learn from and therefore I had the chance to experiment all the possible trials that my parents had in mind.

I remember accompanying my dad to the bank many times so that he could pay fees for my younger brothers. The long queues, tiring rounds while doing shopping and worst of all non negotiable requests of giving out pocket money. I started thinking that being an adult is solely being punished by the heavy responsibilities one had. This was however challenged on my 18 birthday as I did not have any responsibilities and on the contrary, I was now free to drink, get a license and make my own decisions. 

With years slowly crumpling under my fun life, it started to dawn on me that I was actually getting into adulthood but not yet. The confusion of holding onto the past life, denying the present and largely worried about the future started masking me. The decisions I could easily make became projects I had to think hard and plan extensively before making a choice.


"What next with my life now?" I started asking myself everyday when I woke up in the morning. I seemed stuck in the present with the fear of moving forward being my biggest stumbling block. Clocking 18 years wasn't a big achievement after all as far as adulthood is concerned.

Each passing day I see thousands of teenagers living life on the sky after attaining 18 years. I have to admit it feels great, I mean if you don't have an idea what you should be doing, doing anything will come in handy. It is however a phase that will come to give you a tormenting time when you realize that a time is coming when you will be required to be an adult by compulsion.