h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Speaking from a personal point of view, my world view didn't change very much from childhood until experiencing great tragedy. Then everything changed...
In my opinion you become an adult when you realize that there are things in life that you cannot change, people you cannot help; that horrible things will happen to you or people you love for no particular reason.
While it is possible to maintain optimism and self-confidence from this point, there will always be this lurking awareness in the corner of your mind, a certain sobriety. That to me is when you become an adult.

I think you may have something there. I'm 26 and didn't really start feeling like an adult until a couple of years ago and the whole thing didn't really crystalize until about three months ago when I packed up my life and moved to Alaska. Alone. Talk about your dramatic change.

The longer I stroll around this planet the more I think that becoming an adult involves some sort of internal shift towards true North. When you're a child the compass spins in any direction and growing up involves choosing the path you wish to follow. By choosing a path, I mean realizing what sort of person you are going to be and how that affects those around you.

Some people never figure it out and are always a little lost. Some come out of the womb with all the internal questions answered. I haven't figured out if their the lucky ones or not.

I think the people I know who have all the internal questions answered don't really ask the difficult ones.
Or to paraphrase what Billy Bragg said to me (and a few hundred other people) last night, "There are two kinds of people, those who care and those who don't."
If you aren't asking questions, you don't care about what's going on around you.

There's an easy way to determine when adulthood occurs. I think we can all agree that we were only really reached maturity six month ago. Before that I was making silly mistakes, and behaving outrageously.

Now, with six months more experience, I now know how to handle those stiuations that baffled me before.

Hindsight is wonderful.


On the other hand, I think I've regressed a little bit in the last couple of weeks.

Well, 11 months later, I can verify that this is true.

Somewhere in your twenties.
I hit 30 this year, I was so depressed about it, but its been great, a real eye-opener.

Evilwombat, it seems I am now an adult according to your definition (which I wholeheartedly agree with)-- I am 26 years old, and have only really been an adult for 1 year. I'm still adjusting to the sobriety

The thing is, once you qualify as an adult, and no longer have adolescence/immaturity as an excuse - how soon is it before senility kicks in & we start going downhill all over again??

"Old age is always fifteen years older than I am."