Suddenly 18 - and everything is different?

For months you've been looking forward to finally, finally being of age and now that you are, everything still seems to be the same. Or does it?
In any case, almost everything.
In a year's time at the latest, when your first tax return arrives on your desk, you'll realise that you're not quite the child you used to be. Maybe you'll also get a bit more attention from your friends when they need some booze and you're unfortunately the only person who can get it legally.
When you come of age, nothing really changes, but a few things do. Firstly, there are the duties. As you can now officially vote and buy everything, you automatically take on greater responsibility in this sense. You may not feel like it yet, but you are well on the way to becoming an adult. Whether you want to or not.
Nevertheless, this fact of «adulthood» should not be viewed quite so critically and extremely. Society likes to recognise every young person who turns 18 as an adult and expects a lot. Perhaps not in direct communication, but unconsciously.
Just a month ago, you could do whatever you wanted. After all, you were still a teenager. And then, «bang» one day after the infamous date, you have to take on this huge responsibility and be a role model for all the younger ones. But... weren't we already that before? And ... who really wants that? This strict responsibility without any freedom? Who wants to turn 18 and immediately be responsible for every little thing?

Adulthood is a long time. There is almost no time for youth.

Is it really the case that as a young generation we are allowed to do almost nothing and everything up to this age, and then, when the time finally comes, we have to play the great role model? Why pretend to be something to everyone when the only goal in the world is to finally be ourselves?
For years, adults have been telling us that we should remain true to ourselves. That we shouldn't become a copy of someone else. That should be our goal in these first 18 years. To get to know ourselves. To find out our limits and realise what we are allowed to do and what has gone a little too far. We should be allowed to learn what it means to be one of the bigger ones, what we should look out for. And yet - we have to learn what it means to live. In my opinion, we should learn to enjoy our youth and do so in the end. Adulthood is a long time, so there is almost no time for youth.
Of course, certain things are still possible at the proud age of 25, but we have so many more and bigger things to think about. Maybe we've already started a family. Maybe we are already in the middle of our studies. Maybe our lives depend on organised and well-structured weekends.

When can you be young if not now?

When you turn 18, some things change and yet nothing does. Some people look at you differently, others still recognise a child in you that needs to be cared for. And yet you are exactly the same person you were a month ago and the same person you will be in a month's time.
Although you are turning 18 or are already 18, you shouldn't forget the basics in all this hustle and bustle: You are young. You are still so young. Enjoy your time of being young. Of course, we 18-year-olds can't rebel all the time, and we are in a way bound by the duties that have been imposed on us. But we should also be able to live. Acquire memories and look back on them with a smile as grandparents at the age of 80.
Everyone should be able to do what they want and what they think is right, and this number 18, by which so much is measured and judged, should never stand in the way. Because at the end of the day, it's nothing more than a number.

This article is of course entirely the opinion of another 18-year-old who wanted to compile her unspoken thoughts and words and express them in an article. Jana Leu wrote this text for the youth online magazine tize.ch and we at the parents' magazine Fritz+Fränzi are delighted that it can also appear here.