Turning Twenty

What does turning 20 mean in the 21st Century?

They say there are five milestones to adulthood: finishing school, moving out of your parent’s house, being financially independent, getting married and having babies. That’s it – just five steps to your maturity.

Or is it? According to Jeffrey Jensen Arnett – a psychology professor at Clark University in America – it takes longer for youth to reach adulthood today than it did a century ago. Jeffrey says that there are certain cultural developments that have led to this adjustment in society.

1. The need for more education to survive in this information-based economy. Technology and science is developing at a pace that’s almost impossible to keep up with.
2. There are fewer entry-level jobs even after all that schooling, and computer systems replace positions once occupied by people.
3. Young people don’t feel rushed to marry anymore because of the general acceptance of sex before marriage, birth control and even single parenting.
4. Young women don’t sense the urgency to have children because of the wide range of career options. And with the technology today, they can get reproductive assistance even after their biological clock has run out.

Emotional and mental maturity happens gradually as you get older. One day you realize things that used to matter, don’t matter anymore. You make more responsible decisions and react more mature in certain situations. So making a conscious decision to grow up isn’t completely necessary.

Even though turning twenty can produce all these encouraging changes, it can also generate uncertainty and worry about the future. Just ten years ago there was a certain societal pressure to follow these specific steps to reach adulthood. Today there is more freedom around these choices. So rather stay young a little bit longer – you have your whole life ahead of you to act responsible.

You can be the finest twenty-something today – just take chances, learn how to say no, call someone on the phone instead of messaging, save some cash, tell the truth more often, and speak proper English.