Teenage to Adulthood- Anamika

 There is a strange limbo between being a teenager and becoming an adult where you don't fully belong to either world.Teenage life is a whole roller coaster ride of emotions. These are the years you shape yourself. It builds you into the person you become as an adult. You go from a happy little kid living a carefree life to a moody teen with lots of homework. Life begins to look dull and negative rather than the sunshine and rainbows you were used to. Everything begins to develop, from your personality to your body. You start feeling all kinds of emotions and mood swings. We also face many dramatic events like making new friends, developing crushes, hating our entire existence and everyone around us, we go through it all. But it also prepares us for more complex situations we have to deal with in adulthood.

Two years back I turned eighteen and it felt like a milestone marking the transition from adolescence to childhood. But there were no other changes except that I was legally an adult. I continued living the same way I did as a teen, I still did not have full control over my life or the decisions I made. My parents still saw me as their little girl, but now they used the fact that I'm an adult to make me more responsible. As being an only kid I was used to my parents doing everything for me, but now I was made to start doing things on my own. Of course I had complaints at first but then I saw myself becoming more independent and owning the adult title.

So here I am, freshly twenty, and it doesn't feel like becoming an adult, it feels like standing in a doorway with one foot still stuck in childhood. In my opinion, turning a certain age doesn't make you an adult if you don't start behaving like one. I myself don't think I'm as mature enough as an adult should be, I still live in my delusional world not thinking realistically as expected from adults.Although, life has started to become more realistic with bigger responsibilities and purposes. We have aims to set and career goals to achieve and now life is in our hands. Our actions and hard work determine our future.

Looking back, these years from being a teen to turning twenty I have learned to believe in myself no matter what and to stay positive and face all situations life puts us through. This in turn builds us into independent mature citizens. Growing up isn't about having everything figured out, it's about learning how to navigate the uncertainty. And perhaps adulthood isn't a destination but just another phase of fumbling through, except now you're expected to pretend you know what you'redoing. If we survived the chaos of being teenagers, we can definitely figure out this whole adulthood thing one awkward step at a time. Fingers crossed on becoming a responsible adult…you've got this.