Being an Adult
Since I was small, I’m so passionate about being adult. Adults can decide whatever they want, they go out and stay up till late, drink alcohol and buy everything. It sounded perfect for me when I was little but recently, I’m honestly not sure about it. As I grow up, I’m able to do more things and I’m protected by the law and or parents even though I’m not adult. It sounds more perfect for me now but I’m still so curious about what is being Adult like.
In the class, I said that in Japan, we become legal when we turn 20 years old and are called adult. Actually, from April 1, 2022, the age of adulthood was' lowered to 18 from 20. I was surprised that the revision to the civil code was revised for the first time in over 140 years. The background to this is that Japan is struggling with low birth and aging society so this change is aimed at encourage youth to participate in society. We can participate in society two years earlier and I can consider this as I become adults two years earlier. It became possible to participate in election, get married and change your gender without parents' consent. There are more things that I become able to do as we become 18. Except drinking, smoking and public gambling such as horse racing are still prohibited until the age of 20. It’s actually opposite to Taiwan.
In the world, the age of adulthood mainly is 18, of the 38 member countries of the OECD, 18 years old are 35 countries such as Germany, France, Italy, and the United States, 19 years old is Korean and there were only 2 countries which were Japan and New Zealand states 20 years old was adult age. Logically since last year, I also joined part of adult. However, when I look back at myself who passed 18 and turned 20 this December, I am completely different from the adult I imagined, and I feel I’m still immature both mentally and physically.
In my country, it’s often said that working is adult’s job, studying is children’s job. When I was small, I dodged the someone’s favors which I didn’t want to do with the excuse of work of study because it’s easy to be forgiven when we use the word “work”. Being adult and working has very strong connection and inseparable. The gap between rich and poor grows as we become adults. When we were in elementary school, we all ate the same food and brought the same things to school. On the contrary, there’re my college friends who worry about money and eat cheap lunches, and others who go shopping at high fashion brands stores. The difference became so visible.
There are some people who think that adult is someone who is good at their work, can understand the situation and can read between the lines but some little kids can read between the lines. If their mother seems tired, they can help her without asking her anything. There are some elderly people who cannot work well. Also, this idea is a really Japanese thought. On the contrary, in the United States it’s important to have one’s own opinion and to express it clearly. If this is their ideal style of working in America, the definition of adult is going to be different in every country.
The word “adult” is just one of the symbols and it’s a semiotic phenomenon par excellence like religious. Gods has no particular form, and there’s no absolute definition like adult but their appearance and way of thinking change depending on the interpretation. Just like some children don’t believe in gods, some children don’t trust adults. However, if there is no right or wrong answer to this word, those meanings we expect for adults is just stereotype and image are generally created so I believe in adults what I though is adults.
From my point of view, my definition of an adult so far is person who is higher status than myself. It means someone who is superior to me and has something to respect. There’s a situation when I want to decide something with friends, no matter if we’re children or not, sometimes we need to ask adult like my parents, teachers or boss whether we can do or not. For example, if you work at office, you want to start some projects for the company, but you still need to ask your boss or president of your company because he is superior to you in regard to something and in higher status of you. In other words, most of people have someone they can call adults, and we’re adult for somebody too. Being adults is not about judging or allowing permission for things, but if you think they’re adult because their body is bigger and more respectable than you are, they’re adults. Even if their body is smaller but you think they’re adults because they have something that you respect, then they’re adults.
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