WHY IS EVERYONE IN A HURRY TO BECOME AN ADULT?

PRESTIGE TALKConversations Our Generation Needs to Have I think we need to talk about something.Why are we all in such a hurry to grow up? As children, we couldn't wait to become adults. We thought adulthood was simply freedom—making our own decisions, having our own money, dressing however we wanted, going wherever we wanted and, most importantly, nobody telling us “you are still a child.” Then we grew up. And somehow, nobody warned us about the other side of the package. Nobody really told us that adulthood comes with bills, responsibilities, difficult decisions, uncertainty, pressure, and those random moments when you just sit down and think, “Wait… so I'm actually responsible for my life now?” 😭 But here's the interesting part. Even after discovering how demanding adulthood can be, we are still rushing into it. We want to have it all figured out. The money. The career. The business. The relationship. The house. The car. The soft life. The perfect social media feed. And somehow, we have created this silent expectation that by a certain age, we should already have everything together. If you don't, you start feeling like you're behind. And that is where I think our generation needs to slow down. Because growing older and growing up are not the same thing. Age happens automatically. Maturity doesn't. You can be 25 and still be figuring out who you are. You can be 30 and still change careers. You can be 19 and already carry responsibilities people twice your age haven't experienced. There is no universal timetable for becoming the person you are meant to become. Yet we keep looking sideways. Someone is already earning big. Someone is travelling. Someone is getting married. Someone is building a business. Someone has moved out. Someone seems to have life completely under control. And suddenly, you feel like you need to catch up. But catch up to what? Whose timeline are you running on? I think social media has made this even more complicated. We don't just see people living anymore. We see people announcing their lives. New job. New car. New apartment. New relationship. New achievement. New milestone. And because we see the finished product, we sometimes forget that nobody posts every uncertain moment that came before it. We see the celebration. We don't always see the preparation. We see the result. We don't see the years it took to get there. So we begin to rush ourselves because somebody else appears to be ahead. But life isn't a race where everybody started from the same place, had the same opportunities, faced the same circumstances, or followed the same route. Different people require different timelines. And honestly, I think there is nothing wrong with admitting: “I don't have everything figured out yet.” That sentence doesn't make you lazy. It doesn't make you unsuccessful. It doesn't mean you have failed. Sometimes, it simply means you're human. We need to stop treating uncertainty like an emergency. You are allowed to explore. You are allowed to change your mind. You are allowed to discover that the career you thought you wanted isn't actually for you. You are allowed to take your time before entering a relationship. You are allowed to build slowly. You are allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. You are allowed to become. Because adulthood isn't a competition to see who can look the most established. It is the responsibility of learning how to live intentionally. And perhaps that's what we don't talk about enough. We're so focused on looking grown that we sometimes forget to actually grow. We want independence without understanding responsibility. Freedom without consequences. Money without financial discipline. Relationships without emotional maturity. Success without the process. We want the finished version of adulthood without sitting through the uncomfortable lessons that create it. But real growth isn't always glamorous. Sometimes it looks like starting again. Sometimes it looks like saying no. Sometimes it looks like saving instead of spending. Sometimes it looks like leaving what isn't good for you. Sometimes it looks like admitting that you need help. Sometimes it looks like being 20-something and still trying to understand yourself. And that's okay. So maybe the question isn't: “How quickly can I become an adult?” Maybe the better question is: “What kind of adult am I becoming?” Because there is a huge difference between simply getting older and becoming wiser. And if we're going to grow up, let's not just grow older for the sake of it. Let's grow with intention. Let's build lives we actually want—not lives that simply look impressive from the outside. Let's stop turning every birthday into a deadline. Let's stop treating someone else's milestone as evidence that we're failing. And let's give ourselves permission to figure things out without constantly apologising for not having all the answers. Because maybe adulthood was never supposed to be about having everything figured out. Maybe it was always about learning how to figure things out as you go. And honestly… I'm still figuring it out too. But perhaps that's exactly why this conversation needs to happen. This is Prestige Talk. Conversations our generation needs to have.

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