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The following text is a translation of an essay I wrote in my last year of High School. The assignment was to write about one of several topics and discuss a few specific points. My topic ended up being about growing up and rites of passage.

Something that more and more people talk about and discuss these days is how and when you become an adult. Does the transformation occur when during confirmation at 15, when you are of legal age at 18, or when you can purchase alcohol in stores at [20], or at an even later milestone that slips my mind? The only answer I can provide to that question is that I am 18 years old, confirmed, and not an adult.

   Only a few years ago I would probably had said that you become adult when you body stops developing. As you can probably see from that small comment I used to look on problems through a black/white natural science lens even when that had nothing to do with it, but at least I had an answer.

   Nowadays I sit and observe my close friends and family via their status updates on Facebook. I have a hard time feeling anything other than that I've fallen behind on the growing-adult bit when I compare myself to friends my age. One of my friends has a flat with their boyfriend of four years, while I sit alone in my untidy room where I've lived for all of my life. One of my friends has during the time I've known them gone through more than five relationships while I've barely had contact with the outside world. But when I really think about it I don't think they are more adult than I am. I think the reason they seem adult in my eyes is that I don't know what they think about during the days, while I keep almost 100% check on my own "childish" thoughts of the day. To be an adult probably lies very much in how others see you. Few probably feel [they take] a definite step to adulthood before 40, but a lot of people have probably found a way to give the illusion of being an adult long before that.

   We've all probably heard about how no one wants to feel adult, and there's probably something to it. De images I conjure when imagining an adult person is often someone who sits in traffic on their way to a grey office where they work for eight hours before they go back through traffic home, and I don't think I'm alone with that image. Who looks forward to being a being a dry old man (or woman) who just sits and is grouchy on the way to the office, at the office, and on the way from the office? If the majority share my perhaps a bit exaggerated and almost antique image of what it is to be an adult then perhaps it's not that weird that few want to feel adult.

   Jonas Cramby wrote a chronicle for the journal Café in which he mentions how humans throughout history has had numerous different rites that a boy has to complete to become a man. These rites were important points in the young man's life and gave a predetermined path to become an adult. Without these rites we wander around in the dark while at the same time trying to find others who've gotten a bit further to imitate. On the one hand we are not bound by tradition and rules, while on the other we have no idea of how or what we need to do to be adult in the eyes of both us and the world at large. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad to reintroduce old, or perhaps new, rites. It could be a test or a little game to end childhood with, and we could use those adult points that so many are talking about for something concrete: "Gather ten adult points and achieve adulthood." That'd be something.