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Transcription
The podcast explores the concept of adulthood and how it has changed over time. The host interviews her grandmother, who graduated high school in the past, and her friend, who is currently a college student. Both discuss their experiences and expectations of adulthood. The grandmother talks about the need to find work and become financially independent after high school, while the friend discusses the gradual transition into independence in college. They also touch on topics like marriage and feeling like a true adult. Overall, the interviews highlight the differences in expectations and experiences of young adulthood over the years. Adulthood technically begins when you turn 18, and a large capstone for becoming an adult in America is the milestone of graduating from high school. With that being said, do 18-year-old recent high school grads, even 19 or 20-year-olds in American society today, actually feel like adults? What responsibilities and expectations do they hold now versus the responsibilities young adults held 60 years ago? My name is Marisa Rogholt, and to begin this podcast, I want to start by defining the word adult taken from the Oxford English Dictionary. An adult is defined as a person who is fully grown and developed. This can be interpreted in many ways, but as a fellow 19-year-old, I do not feel fully developed or grown in the slightest, to be completely honest. I have so much growing up knowledge to do, so many skills to develop emotionally, and so much more to accomplish until I feel like a true adult. To many, adulthood also means you are independent, mainly financially as well. Now, I know this is not true for all people my age and everyone has their own circumstances, but everyone that I know age 18 to 20 is not a dependent in this way at all yet. That's enough about my experiences, though. The age of adulthood clearly needs an update, and this podcast will start to explore that topic through a couple of interviews. One interviewee is 81 years old, and one is 19 years old. These two people were young adults almost 60 years apart, and there will hopefully be some major differences that we uncover in our conversations about young adulthood. By doing these interviews, I hope to start to paint a picture of how young adulthood has evolved over the last half-century or so, even if the literal age of an adult, 18, hasn't changed one bit. Getting into our first interview, I'm here with my grandma, Geri. Hi, Grandma. I first want to wish you a happy late birthday. Oh, thanks a lot. Now, since this podcast is about the age of adulthood, I was hoping to ask you some questions about some of your experiences and expectations set for you when you were a young adult. Can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself, like where you're from and where you're at now? Well, I grew up in Barnesville, Minnesota, and when I turned 18, I moved to Morehead, Minnesota, and now I'm in Bloomington, Minnesota. Sounds perfect. I see you like Minnesota. So, first question, did you ever see yourself attending college after high school? No, not really. So, what was on your mind senior year of high school because you weren't seeing yourself attending college? Like, more specifically, were you trying to figure out what to do with the rest of your life at that age? Yes, I was pretty much, Lee. I couldn't go to college because there was no money, and my grades weren't like yours, so I couldn't go to college. How did that feel? Did that make you feel pretty independent in that way? Was it kind of stressful? No, I just figured I'd have to get a job to support myself. So, you felt like you kind of had to mature at like an early age, like right after high school you were kind of like, all right, this is where I become an adult. Yes, I was 18 when I graduated from high school, so. Right. Now, I know the average age of marriage was much lower back then, so did you see a large population of people at your school worrying about who they were going to marry, like worrying about, I've got to find the right person right now? No, not really. A lot of us had already found them. In high school? Yeah, I wasn't your grandpa in high school. Well, I know you did, but. So did a lot of my friends. Yeah, people had found them? Right. When you turned 18, or more specifically when you graduated high school, if you can think back, what did your mother expect of you? Were you expected to be financially independent once you graduated high school, like kind of, it stopped right there, the dependency? Pretty much, like. How did that, how did that feel? Well, it wasn't easy, because I had to find work, and there wasn't any work in Barnesville, so I had to go to Fargo-Morgan to find it. Yeah. And did you see people around you, people your age, did that happen a lot of the time with those people? It happened to most of us. A few of them went to college, but not as many as go nowadays, I don't think. Yeah. I think that's all I have for right now. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me, and to talk about that part in your life. It was very interesting to hear about, I thought. Okay, you're very welcome. All right, bye, Grandma. Bye-bye. Before we recap that interview too much, I kind of want to get directly into the next interview, so the first interview stays fresh in your mind, as you listen to my friend's experiences with adulthood. I'm now here with my friend, Lizzy Lessowing. Lizzy, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Yeah, so my name's Lizzy Lessowing, I'm an undergraduate student at the University of Denver, studying business and psychology. I'm originally from Lincoln, Nebraska, but moved to Denver for college. Yeah. Cool. As you already know, this podcast is about the age of adulthood, which is technically speaking 18 years old. I want to start with a question more on the deeper side. Do you feel more independent or more reliant? I think, in general, definitely more reliant. College has definitely been a more independent experience, especially for me because I moved away from home, yet I still call my parents every week, and they'll still give me money to go do things, like whatever. They pay for my college. They pay for my car at home. When I go home this summer, I'll be living with them still, not in my own house. I would say as much as college has made me more independent, I'm still a very reliant person. Yeah, that's a really good answer, like really in-depth. What would you say changed in your life when you turned 18, and more specifically, when you graduated high school, when that new chapter of your life began? Did people, family members, start to treat you differently? I think, definitely, throughout senior year and the summer going into college, it was definitely kind of a, oh, you're going to have to be more of an adult now, or you have to take things into your own hands now, but I also don't think it was extremely cut off and like, hey, you're in the real world, we're not helping you. It was very much a gradual thing, and it's still gradually increasing into that, and I'll gradually become more independent from my parents and other family members throughout college, but I think my first year in college, I'm still very ingrained in my family and ingrained in their practices and things of that sort. So, yeah, so you mentioned gradual, so you'd say as college goes on, you'll feel more independent in the coming years? Yes, I think, I don't think at 18 years old I was like, oh, I'm an adult, and I think I'm starting to feel more like an adult, but I don't think I'll even feel like an adult, because I'm pretty sure I'll be on my parents' insurance until 25, that's the last year. So even 19 or 20, even moving forward, then, like, it's very gradual. Yes, I would say, and a lot of people experience it that way, it's a gradual maturity, a gradual movement into adulthood, rather than a hard and fast set date. Yeah, so on a different page, like, do you ever think of marriage, like, you feel like scrambling, like you should be finding your person right now type thing? So, being from Lincoln, Nebraska, Christianity is a really big thing, and in Christian faith, a lot of people get married very young. I know a lot of 19, 20 year olds that are engaged getting married, and to me, that's just kind of like, I don't think you're prepared. Like, I think right now, especially in our day and age, we, kids are very much looked after, like, even, like, we call it young adults now, like 18 to 21, like, they're looked after by their parents, there's no way or form to get engaged and married and things like that, so I have not thought about that in any regard, really. I've only felt pressure to find my person because all these other people are, but people are jumping the gun right now and doing things they're not actually ready for. They're not experiencing adulthood before they do something that's a very adult experience. Yeah, especially, like, where you're from, versus, like, when you came to Denver, did you see a change in, like, people are kind of not looking for that right now? Yes, 100%. I think back in Nebraska, it's very much settle down and whatever, but here, it's like, there's no, there's really no pressure to settle down and get married, it's like, oh, like, have your fun and date people you want to date, if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out, like, you have time. Yeah, so, like, the last question is, when do you think you'll genuinely start to feel like a true adult? Like, if you had to put some age on it or some point in your life where you'll start to feel, like, truly independent, like, achieving that adult definition? I think, right now, it'll be, honestly, I think it'll be when I get my first job. So, probably post-grad, probably 23, 22, something like that. Yeah. Just because, as a student, I just feel, still, like, I'm under someone else, like, I'm under the professors or I'm under, like, I'm still being, like, told what to do because I'm still in education. Exactly, yeah. So, not until 22 or 23 when it's, I'm paying for my own rent, I have my own job, like, sure, I have bosses and stuff, but, like, I'm kind of figuring that out for me. And so, I think college is definitely providing a gradual experience into adulthood rather than a hard and fast experience into adulthood. Right. Well, thank you for your answers and thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I think that's all I have for right now. Wonderful, thank you. All right. Now, to be honest, the answers we got in those two interviews were just as I was expecting. My grandma was forced to mature and become independent much sooner than my friends now are. However, obviously, I can't just interview two people and say there is conclusive evidence that the age of adulthood is outdated in America. Every person, of course, has their own circumstances surrounding when they have to mature into independent adults. To do a little more digging, I did some research on college enrollment statistics in the United States. According to the Education Data Initiative, I know, sounds fancy. In 1961, 2.1 million people were enrolled in university in the U.S., both grad and undergrad. That number is now up to 19 million. The amount of people enrolled in university is now over nine times more than 60 years ago. As Lizzie mentioned a couple of times, college itself seemingly provides a very gradual entrance into true adulthood. This fact alone could be one of the main reasons why the age of adulthood is outdated. Turning 18 60 years ago, as my grandma told us, entailed for many that they were to be independent and go get jobs. Turning 18 in today's day and age entails, for at least 62% of Americans, that they are about to start their college journeys. That percentage doesn't even include the people who take gap years. Of course, there are many other factors, aside from college, that contribute to the outdatedness of this age as well, like the median age of marriage, for example. But I believe, especially after doing these interviews, that college is a key part of answering our question as to why people mature much later now than they used to. This podcast merely brushed across the surface of everything that there is to investigate about the age of adulthood and how it's evolved over the years. I hope it's been intriguing to hear about two people's opposite relationships with the idea of turning 18 and what that meant for them in their lives. Thank you for listening to my podcast. Again, my name is Marisa Roghold, and I want to leave you with a simple question to ponder. What do you think the updated age of adulthood should be, and why?
