18 and Life

In general, a person was considered to be an "adult" when they reach a certain "age". The said age can vary depending on the country where the person live or the traditions that they have and once that they reach that adult age, it becomes a special day for them to celebrate that is why "Debut Birthday" exist as the person was now being introduced to the society as an adult and by becoming an adult, they became entitled with privileges that is off limits to a child like drinking alcohol but they also been endowed with responsibilities like voting for the country's leaders.

In this post, I will explore the age of adulthood my country have and whether it was of the ideal age or not.

Coming of Age in the Philippines

^{Original Image Source: Godwin Torres- Pexels}

In the Philippines, a person was said to be of an adult age when they reach the age of 18 as per REPUBLIC ACT NO. 6809. By this, they have earned the right of property and the right to vote although on some matters like marriage, parental consent was still needed until the person reach 21. So it is safe to say that even when a person reach an adult age, the parents still have some of the authority to make decisions for them. But hey! It is not as if people of that age have the ability to be independent on their own. At that age, they are most likely still studying in college as their gateway to the working society so imagine if their parents stop supporting them just because they became an adult.

Do you feel that it's too soon or too late?

I think that the age of adulthood that we have is just right. Within the age of 18, a person's body has said to have become fully developed already so if physically, they are already an adult then by right, they should also be considered as an adult. Acting as one would be different though and that is why I think that not giving the full authority until the person reach the age of 21 allows the parent of the person the opportunity to teach them "the ropes of being an adult" before they are fully released to the society.

If it were up to me, I would just keep the age of adulthood we have in our country as it is. If within 18- 21 (at the earliest), these people can be released in the society, find a job and support themselves, that will be less burden for the parents. At the same time, they will have more time to explore everything in life that they have the full privilege of an adult.

Adulthood Vrs. Maturity

Like I said above, at the age of 18, a person was considered to be an adult in the Philippines by law and within this age, their bodies have also becomes fully developed. 'Maturity" though was an entirely different thing and the phase of once maturity can differ from person to person regardless of once age. What makes a person to become mature are the experiences that they have gone through in life and whether that experience have teach them a lesson and since we all experience different things in life, the amount of maturity we have can likely to differ despite our age. That is why there are times we see adults behave as childish as a children while there were children that can act more level headed than any adult like this video where an adult try to take a ball to kids.

Thank you for reading my post and see you on the next one!