Editor’s Note: Each composition class participated in a competition, choosing one guest editorial to be published in The Broadside. This essay was chosen to represent one of Ms. Knight’s classes.
In January I turned eighteen. By law, I am considered an adult. However, I gained one privilege by turning eighteen: the right to vote. This now gives me the ability to help choose the country’s future. This is weird because although I can now help the country’s future, there are many things that I cannot do— such as drinking. With these weird double standards we should reconsider what privileges should be given, and what the age of adulthood should be.
Eighteen-year-olds are not old enough to be considered adults. According to Cammie Johnson, a reporter, “A lot of 18-year-olds are still in school. As teenagers…going through a lot emotionally and mentally,” with “some believing that they lack maturity…aren’t yet capable of acting like one” (Johnson). This leads to the fact that we should raise the age of adulthood. In the article, Cammie mentions the human brain is not fully developed at eighteen. Perhaps we should raise the age of adulthood.
Companies are starting to realize the immaturity of eighteen-year-olds. These companies are not selling eighteen-year-olds firearms because of the slew of school shootings that happened in our country. According to New York Times writer Carralyn Grosspin, “Two of the nation’s leading gun sellers… limit their sales of firearms” (Grosspin) This quote acknowledged that companies are starting to regulate the guns given to eighteen-year-olds. This is because most of the shooters in school shootings are younger people. At the age of eighteen, most people cannot handle the responsibilities of a firearm. This matters because it enforces the fact that eighteen-year-olds should not be considered adults.
Knute Berger is a writer who disagrees. He says, “I know from my own experience as a baby boomer that I felt fully adult by the age of 18. It was the era when young men were being drafted for Vietnam” (Knute). Clearly Berger has an opposing opinion to me in this quote. Many people think they are more mature than they are. I do not believe any eighteen-year-olds should join the military or vote until they are emotionally and mentally old enough to do so.
All we can do is petition to change the age of adulthood. With the power of the internet, we can tell thousands of people about this problem in minutes. The fact that a lot of people from this generation are starting to become eighteen, we can now vote to change the age of adulthood to a better age.