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PoetryIsLife

Senior Member

since 2001-10-27

Posts 1763
...in my boxers...

0 posted 2003-07-01 03:34 AM

Hi.

A thread about turning eighteen...

    For those older, what do you remember about that moment?

    For those younger, what do you look forward to?

    For those in similar shoes, what stands out most?

I'm turning eighteen in a bit over a week. Just thought I'd share the news. This only happens once.

Peace.

~Titus

"I want you to hit me as hard as you can." No, really, I do.

Sudhir Iyer
Member Ascendant

since 2000-04-26

Posts 6943
Mumbai, India : now in Belgium

1 posted 2003-07-01 09:43 AM

Hi Titus,

Call me negative, but there is nothing special about being 18. It is just as special as being 17 or 19 or 29 or 50.

Of course society places certain importance on these milestones.

I suppose the most cherishable birthdays are those spent with people who love/like you and whom you love/like and the best years are the ones which appear to have flown away quicker than others...

but that's me...

yes, 18 is different than for instance 13, because the human brain will have developed more and interprets scenes and situations around in a more 'mature' way... but I would not trust even a 50 year old with a gun completely

I believe you will get better answers from others ...

Regards
Sudhir

SEA

Moderator

Member Seraphic

since 2000-01-18

Posts 22676
with you

2 posted 2003-07-01 11:00 AM

18...it's a turning point...at least I thought so when I hit it.

I thought I was so grown up..ha! LOL nope, still just as silly as 17...only I was legal at 18. I worked two jobs and was trying to figure out what to do with my life, you know, what I wanted to "be". Good grief, I still am trying to figure that one out

There are other years or birthdays that stand out better for me, just due to what was going on in my life and who was in it...enjoy the freedoms that come with that birthday. I hope you have a fantastic day!

IcyFlamez89
Member

since 2003-02-14

Posts 292
Jersey City NJ

3 posted 2003-07-01 11:01 AM

I don't really care how old I am, as long as i can get a job. I need the money badly. Six people can't live off one income so mom is gonna need some help. At 18, I'd be in my senior year, so 18 is like another transition. Too scary to think about for me, since surviving Middle School was already hard enough.

Jason Lyle
Senior Member

since 2003-02-07

Posts 1438
With my darkling

4 posted 2003-07-01 04:56 PM

I remember a sense of freedom I felt.Now I could legally say no.I wasn't listening anyway, but who could stop me now?

A turning point for you, a legal recognition that you are a man,though you probably have been for a while.

I wish you the best on your birthday, the next several years of your life hold some wonderful discoveries, and some powerful decisions.

I am 31 now, and my wife won't let me move back in with mom

Jason

blueyedlioness
Member

since 2003-04-24

Posts 289
USA

5 posted 2003-07-01 07:31 PM

'Lo there... I'll be turning eighteen in nine months.

Yeah, I'm excited... ya know, parents aren't completely in control anymore, I'll be out of the restricted license laws, I can see R-rated movies and by restricted cds and I won't get the "come back and apply when you're eighteen" line from all the good places to work.

BUT... I'm also pretty freaked out. I mean, COLLEGE and BILLS and RESPONSIBILITY... AAAAHHHHH!!!

So while I'm looking forward to it... sometimes I still wish I was five and could fit in people's laps. *grin*

Good luck... and happy birthday!

-Lioness

Nightshade

Member Patricius

since 2001-08-31

Posts 13962
just out of reach

6 posted 2003-07-01 08:46 PM

Well Titus, for those of us "older ones"...I remember quite vividly my 18th birthday. I had been married almost one month....a baby due in the fall and my mother was beginning the downward spiral of the final months of cancer. It was not a pleasant birthday. Yet in a way it was a new beginning as is all of our birthdays. I had no idea how many life lessons I still had ahead of me. I just thought....oh gee, I am 18 .. guess that's about it for me. WRONG.
I remember the war in Vietnam was raging. I remember hippies were wandering around with flowers in their hair and mini skirts were the rage. Sort of like to-day really....wars...skater boys or goth's...whatever people other than the norm are called now....flowers and colours in their hair....mini skirts are back in.
Take hold of each moment and treasure the memories of each birthday dear Titus. Time flys by so quickly. Do great things. I know you will. Pre-Happy Birthday!! Chris

Bec
Member

since 2001-02-23

Posts 475
Canberra

7 posted 2003-07-02 05:28 AM

Oooh, yes... I remember turning 18 very well...

My 18th birthday party was a total disaster. Two of my friends had a huge screaming match in the front yard for an hour. She took his car keys and wouldn't give them back for some reason, he hadn't been drinking or anything. Anyway, when she finally gave the keys back, he was in a foul mood, and was driving quite carelessly and wrote his car off...

My 21st was much better.

Bec

"Poetry and Hums aren't things which you get, they're things which get you. And all you can do is to go where they can find you."
-Winnie-the-Pooh

Nan

Administrator

Member Seraphic

since 1999-05-20

Posts 21191
Cape Cod Massachusetts USA

8 posted 2003-07-02 07:11 AM

When I turned 18, the age of "turning adult" was actually 21... When I turned 21, it was moved back to 18...

Sudhir Iyer
Member Ascendant

since 2000-04-26

Posts 6943
Mumbai, India : now in Belgium

9 posted 2003-07-02 09:00 AM

Nan, "turning" adult ? now, who would want to turn

one

TasteOfOctober
Member

since 2003-06-24

Posts 94

10 posted 2003-07-02 01:06 PM

im 18 in roughly 4 months and i cannot with words express how i am fighting forthat moment. not because i'll be a legal adult or any of that but because, for one, i get off of probation just before i turn 18 but might be kept on till im 18, and gettin off probation is just another world of possibilites after a year. then also i'm anxious to start college (im goin for creative writing in poetry) and my mom says financial aid will be more sufficient at 18. dunno why. but then theres also the legal curfew that I will be able to grab that curfew up force my hand closed until it crumples into nothingness and wake with a hangover in the morning. but mainly, jhusty gettin off probation.

The only difference between the creative and the conformists is that the creative will not be conquered and the conformists already are.

[This message has been edited by Ron (07-02-2003 05:24 PM).]

quatro
Member

since 2003-04-29

Posts 392
Galveston, Texas

11 posted 2003-07-02 01:32 PM

Turning 18 was a race for me. At the time I was desperate to reach the legal drinking age (why? I dunno, but I wanted to be there). It was happy times spent with close friends and a new boyfriend. But then things changed, the drinking age changed again and I found out I was going to be a parent. Going to school, going to work and paying a babysitter soon became my lively hood. My boyfriend left me and refused responsibility. Since that time, I have been in what I wanted..."adulthood" and I entered it too soon.

So I have mixed emotions about 18. Although it was a special time for me, it was truly a turning point. It's been almost 20 years since I graduated from high school and although times have changed for me, for my now 18 year old daughter, she wants all the freedom she thinks she deserves. But life is not that kind.

I hope that being 18, for you, will be everything you hoped it would be.

quatro

Skyfire

Member Elite

since 2000-12-27

Posts 3381
Riding

12 posted 2003-07-02 08:12 PM

Eighteen... um... I honestly don't really remember it... I had to work the day I turned 18, I remember that... I was... OH YEAH. I was just coming out of that whole Tom disaster, and I didn't really notice any changes other than my parents treated me with a new level of respect. Now that I'm old, 18 seems such a long time ago, even though it's only been two years. *BIG HUGS* you'll be fine, you'll enjoy it. And if you don't I'll come and attack you with a feather or something equally painful.
Yeah... 18's a good age... wait till you turn 20, then you're old (just ask Andrew LMAO)

It is said the Creator has taken a handful of South Wind and given each newborn Arabian the power of flight without wings

Miah
Senior Member

since 2002-08-26

Posts 1062
Pennsylvania

13 posted 2003-07-02 08:20 PM

18...sigh.. HA! I can remember thinking "Wow I can vote and gamble now! and move out of my parents house!"

I think it is a turning point in your life, to choose what you want to do with it! I hope yours is a special one.

Kielo
Senior Member

since 2002-02-11

Posts 1109

14 posted 2003-07-03 02:57 AM

Hey! Congrats on 18! I don't care what they say.... its 18! lol.... Enjoy it, and don't yearn too hard for 21.... You'll feel old before you know it.... Like my dear clonee, who insists that now that she is 20 she is old.

(I'm not mocking.... I think I might get hurt if I did... lol... jk

)

Anyway, have a great year, and life, and all that other cheesy stuff they say at birthdays.

Kielo

Of all the things I've lost, I miss innocence the most...

chasing rain
Senior Member

since 2001-05-15

Posts 737
Canada

15 posted 2003-07-03 09:40 PM

Well, at 18...

You begin to feel old. And then, a few years down the road, you start losing your hair (balding or pulling it out...both work.) Another few years from balding/losing hair, you get up one morning and decide that the usual brand of coffee you drank for 20 years of your life tastes like cardboard. The next year, you stop buying coffee all together. Three months later, you have a mid-life crisis and go surfing in Hawaii.

In Hawaii, you meet a nice waiter/waitress who offers you good tasting fruit. You eat the fruit and begin to feel healthy again. You go home and decide you want to see the world. A week later, you build yourself an airplane that doesn't fly from your broken down washing machine and old chairs.

Embarking on this journey of a lifetime, you forget your toothbrush at home. By the time you thought of this, however, you're already half way to Venezuela (unless you're in Venezuela. If you are, take out an atlas and point your right foot's big toe on a random place. You will be half way to this place).

In a fit of horror and disbelief, you stop off at the nearest Shopper's Drugmart® to get some gum. You pick the BerryBerry flavour, only to realize, 7 weeks later, that you still don't have a toothbrush.

While you're thinking this (and well past Venezuela/insert-random-country-here) a random semi-truck going at a random speed decides to randomly (go figure) stop off at a random truck stop.

The trucker orders fried eggs and a pound of bacon and returns to his truck. While he is driving, he spontaneously checks his gas meter, while noting the very sudden dryness of a the weather. Suddenly, a tornado hits (yes, in very dry weather, which is rare. But this is a very rare story of being, and so you must bare with me and the unusual circumstances) and tosses the trucker out of the truck to safety in a nearby barn, and carries the truck somewhere past Venezuela.

Coincidentally, the unflying airplane has just crossed the Argentinian border when a gi-normous species of truck lands in the middle of the road. "HALLELUJAH!" you cry in pure ecstacy that is not made in a factory. Abandoning your loyal and sturdy groundplane (which you named "Hank"), you load everything into the front seat of the semi and continue your journey around the world.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a pelican attacks the semi's windshield. You scream, faint, and drive the truck into a nearby parking lot. When you come to, you are surrounded by good fruit. You eat the fruit, feeling healthy again (also noting the amazing parking job you somehow managed) and then continue on your journey.

5 months and 9 weekends later, you find yourself in Mexico. Actually, in Europe, they call it Spain. You buy a sombrero (which is added to your "foreign words of unusual humanic species" list, word #47) and travel west to the Orient, skipping France.

When you get to China, you realize that you not only skipped France, but also the rest of Europe. No worries, you brought your sombrero along (which you named "Zombi" because "Sombi" didn't sound right.) You also picked up a stray cat, who you didn't name for private reasons.

From China to Japan, and Japan to the Koreas and the Phillipines, you hear of Papa New Guinea. Never having met this Papa New Guinea before, you decide to search for this Papa and meet his children. Perhaps they would like to look after the cat and Zombi while you finish your tour of the world?

You never find Papa New Guinea because a Bed and Breakfast hotel catches your eye. You like cotton, so you stay there over night. The next morning, you have a new tent set, and the manager chasing you with a spork.

Escaping the angry, mean man, you drive on into dusk...

and wake up the next morning to find yourself in a crazy home for crazy people at the age of 18.

I apologize for making this so long, but I guess what I was trying to say was...

turning 18 isn't half bad when you're dreaming.

7 more months of childhood bliss!

-Leah

[This message has been edited by chasing rain (07-03-2003 09:43 PM).]

LoveBug

Moderator

Member Elite

since 2000-01-08

Posts 4697

16 posted 2003-07-05 01:13 AM

I just turned 18 in March. For me, this past year has been a period of huge transition. I learned a lot about myself, about other people, and about God. The birthday itself was fun, hanging out with friends and going to church... but it made me think of the year I had just had. It wasn't the greatest, but it had the biggest part of shaping who I am now. I look at the events that happened right after my birthday... how I was accepted into three music programs, and where I am now, poised to begin my life alone. It's exciting and wonderful.

Oh, make me Thine forever
And should I fainting be
Lord, let me never ever
Outlive my love for Thee