Pretty much the title. It seems 18 is universally recognized as the age of adulthood and I’m wondering why such a specific number. Why not 20 for example?
I know there are tribes around the world where children step into adulthood at a younger age, but usually there is some sort of rite of passage involved.
In: 74
I always felt like it was sort of a “well, we have to pick something… 21 seems too restrictive to wait for some things and younger teens seems too immature… let’s go with 18 for some and 21 for others”.
I’ve had this conversation so many times because I have colleagues into their 30s who are still immature and gullible and honestly make really bad impulsive decisions in life, and teenagers who are so full of wisdom, grit, and collected under pressure that I feel like they could be a respected general leading a platoon into wartime victory.
But not ALL people are like either of those. So we had to pick an arbitrary number in between and agree on it.
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