Craft of Creative Non-Fiction

What Age is Decision Making Age?

Sierra Wegener

December 5, 2014

Age seems to be everything in our society; it is all about privileges. At

age 5, our parents are allowed to put us in Kindergarten. At age 14, we

are legally allowed to drive with a parent as long as we pass the test

and age 16, we are allowed to drive on our own. Age 17, we are

allowed to see those scary rated R movies, and then there is the big

18. The one everyone looks forward to. So what is so special about

turning 18? You are now a legal adult, in the United States. You can

vote, buy porn, enter the military under your free wish, and buy

cigarettes. We are also no longer our parents responsibility so if

anything happens with us, we are responsible for it. We can go to

college wherever we want and get married to anyone of our choosing.

But there is a difference between what we can do and what is

acceptable. We are capable of making decisions of not others? Are we

trusted to make hard decisions? What to do with our lives and who to

spend the rest of our lives with are the most important decisions we

have to make. But not everyone will trust you to make those decisions.

I know from my own personal experience that its hard to break free

from having every decision made for you to making your own
decisions. A lot of my decision I dont even trust my self to make

because Im so indecisive.

Picture this: its senior year and Im so excited to leave from

school. I really thought about going somewhere that wasnt UNI but my

mom pushed UNI so much. The biggest decision of my life is meant to

be MY OWN decision and it ended in me being guilt tripped into where

to go to school. Then choosing what I want to do with the next 40-45

years of my life is even trickier. How do we trust our decisions when we

are 20 years old? How do we know we are going to love the stuff we

love now.

Are we going to love doing what we major in 10 or 20 years from

now? I dont think so because I can barely find something that I want to

major in. One semester I love something and the next I hate it and love

something else. Another huge factor with what I choose to major in is

my mother. She may think she is concerned about my future but it just

stresses me out even more. Not do I have to find something that I love

doing but something that will also please my mom. Every time I see

my mom, she always nags me about what Im going to do.

For a while I thought I was going to go into the broadcasting and

E-media stuff. Then I thought I dont actually like this and had the

impulsive idea that I wanted to go into journalism. I chose to go into

journalism because it is a profession that is related to writing and it is

somewhat of a practical career. It turns out UNI doesnt have a

journalism major so I settled with public relations. The only reason I

pursued public relations is my academic advisor suggested public

relations. He said many journalism careers look at public relations too.

Half way through the semester, I decided I hated my public

relations classes because there was a lot of business added to it. I

really wanted something with more writing. So there I was, sitting at a

desk across from a 50-60 year old man, who just happened to be my

adviser. I changed my major to English-teaching because I thought it

wasnt very practical to go into English with no back up. Ive always

wanted to become a published author but that is not a career. As of

now, I took 3 months of teaching classes and Im changing my major

once again but not such a drastic change. I am now an English major

without the teaching. I realize not everyone will understand what Im

going to do with it and that is okay. Your college major is not about

pleasing everyone, just yourself. Now, after a year and a half of

schooling, I have changed my major four times.

This lesson states that not many college students know what

they want right now. Many college students dont know what they can

do right now, while there are the few ones that come into school

knowing exactly what they want to do with the rest of their lives.

College isnt the only big decision that you begin to make after high

school. At age 18 we are allowed to choose who runs our country, who

we want to be with for the rest of our lives, our spouses, and if we
choose to smoke that cold kill us later on. But most people look down

upon marriage at such a young age because they dont think we can

make a dig decision like that.

Choosing who you want to say I do with is a huge deal because

it is considered a life commitment. In the 1950s it was normal to get

married at a young age and even have children young. But today

getting married is looked down upon because so many young

marriages end in divorce. I have a friend who got married, only a year

out of high school. I dont know how his family reacted but his friends

were not supportive because marriage is one of those privileges we

obtain as we turned 18 but is not acceptable to society.

Another example of an acceptable thing in society that we are

allowed to do once we turn 18 is voting for political leaders. It is such a

big deal when you are 18 that you can vote for the first time. As a

senior, who can vote, I got to experience what it was like to vote in

high school. On that one day there was a difference between the

seniors who could vote and the ones who were not, yet, 18. This is a

prime example that seniors only vote to say that they did not. Most are

not informed so we are not the best people to be deciding who runs

our government. This is an example of our privileges being used in the

wrong way.

Only after 18 years, we are allowed to choose whether or not we

want to smoke something that could give us lung cancer and kill us
earlier than expected. Society gives us the privilege to be able to buy

cigarettes and smoke them. It is ironic that we are allowed to choose to

smoke but alcohol is off limits to us until we are 21. But alcohol has no

immediate danger to our health and we are not allowed to choose to

drink it when we become an adult. But we are allowed to choose if we

want to harm our lunch for the rest of our lives.

So, we can make a decision thats going to cost us thousands of

dollars, that could kill us, or even one as big as deciding who runs our

country but not a life commitment with our hearts desire. This is an

issue in the world today because either you trust us to make important

decisions or you dont. We cant have one choice that you trust us to

make and the other one is just off limits. United States, as a country,

doesnt value 18 to make important decisions but we are allowed to.

This is counteracting . As a whole, the country is saying we are liable

for the decisions we choose to make.