Elise Johns is a first-year
undecided major from
Carmel, Indiana.
It can be said that an overwhelming majority of the people on DePauw’s campus, at any given time, are adults. With the exception of the outlying seventeen-year-old freshmen or Greencastle youth that can be found wandering the outskirts of the campus, we are all (legally) adults here.
Yet due to the lack of uniformity involved in the legalities associated with certain ages, confusion surrounding the exact and accepted conceptions of adulthood begins to set in. This issue comes to light when trying to isolate the exact turning point at which the transformation to adulthood is made. Most people, as well as myself, consider adults, legally so when they reach the age of 18.
Eighteen-year olds are considered adults by legal standards. They are permitted to join any branch of the military, vote in local, state and national elections, purchase tobacco products, lottery tickets and even enter bars in certain states. But with the legal drinking age set at 21, and with parent-dependent insurance policies ending at 26, the lines of adulthood seem blurred.
It becomes confusing and frankly annoying to be considered an adult yet still have certain restrictions. This also becomes especially agitating when many restrictions are widely expected to be in fact unaccepted. This is exceedingly apparent on college campuses all around the country.
When the legitimacy of an age restriction lies only in a number written in state policy and legislature, the overall relevancy of the constraint becomes muddled. This age constraint comes with a tradeoff of an age privilege.
I believe it can be safely said that an overwhelming large amount students on this campus are not completely financially independent. Whether their financial dependency lies in a credit card bill they do not pay or a tuition bill they may never have to see, many students cannot fully and truthfully claim financial independency.
There exists many trade-offs to being given all the responsibilities of adulthood, largely centered around monetary concerns, whether directly or indirectly (which can be seen through various types of insurance coverage). The tradeoff of not having to claim complete and total personal financial responsibility can be a very attractive aspect of the quasi-adulthood conceptions.
The differing opinions combined with differing age restrictions contribute to the confusion, which circulates around the age issue of adulthood. Lack of uniformity these restrictions is the foremost and primary reason for this confusion.