It’s the most wonderful time of the year: post election. Just kidding. It is the season of young adults exercising their democratic rights (voting), though, which has led me to wonder: when do we reach emotional maturity, and is that congruent with legal adulthood?

At this point, I think we all know that our brain’s frontal lobe (the part of the brain responsible for logical decision making and judgment) fully develops at about around 25 years old. If you didn’t, well, now you do. The National Institute of Mental Health says that because the brain is still developing and maturing into the mid to late 20s, teens deal with stress and decisions differently, which makes total sense. You would think that adulthood would be at 25, then right? Driving at 16, real prison at 18, and drinking at 21 prove that wrong. 

Is this completely bad though? Not necessarily. Well, maybe. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the fatal car crash ratio for teens 16-19 was four times as common for adults over 19, with a variety of reasons like speeding, the higher rate of driving at night, and driver errors at its root cause. Maybe this is just me looking for excuses to not get my license (I’m going to do it eventually I swear), but it seems a bit strange to have the driving age lower than the adulthood age, especially with the statistics being that high. It doesn’t match some other countries’ requirements, either. In England, it’s 17, and in Spain, Portugal, Italy, etc. it’s 18.

Since the frontal lobe is responsible for linear thinking and decision making, it makes sense that an 18 year old wouldn’t always make the best choices. That is not their fault, to some biological degree. However, it is one’s job to understand that disadvantage and actively work against it. That means educating and asking for help when necessary. That’s easier said than done, though. For example, at 17 and 18 years old, high schoolers are asked to decide their future. Pick a college, pick a major, and get started. This is a lot of decision making for someone whose brain literally isn’t fully developed in the decision making area. Consequently, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, about one third of college students change their major throughout their four years. That is a hefty amount, and demonstrates how ridiculous it is to ask someone so young that question anyway. 

Even with all these statistics, I still believe that 18 is a fairly reasonable age to become an adult. I also think it would be a reasonable age to be legally allowed to drive, but what do I know? There is so much pressure on freshly post grad high schoolers to decide their entire lives, but all in all, being an adult offers a step into independence that, whether someone is ready for or not, is necessary, even though it’s kind of silly to decide that someone who can’t rent a car even though they have a license can know what life they want years down the line.