You're not a double adult at 36 🙂 You became a full adult 10 years ago. Now you're just an older, slightly slower adult and it's gonna get worse exponentially fast.
What makes 26 a full adult?
The brain reaches full maturity around 25. Some parts of the brain stop developing long before then but the pre-frontal cortex is an exceptionally slow developer. It's responsible for cognitive control: self-regulation both internally and externally.
Basically if you don't learn behavioural regulation by the age of 25, it's going to be harder to unlearn those habits afterwards. This is often seen in people who constantly make poor life choices and don't seem to be able to stop, or people with poor emotional control.
Maybe it's that you've gone through the alphabet? 26 would be Z years old, at 36 you'd be AJ years old. If you calculate your age in letters that is...
In my experience, around 18 / 20 you're fresh out of the trainwreck of puberty and you're pretty much a mess of a proto-adult, but at least a fairly clean slate to learn how to become a fully rounded one. You only truly get there in any practical sense of the word a few years later - so around 25 maybe. Of course, the older you get, the more you realize you were quite naive at 25 too. But at least you're "fully there" at 25 so-to-speak.
Women go through that maturing process sooner than men I believe. I'm speaking from a man's perspective.
That's just when the realization of it all sets in. Your 20s are when you begin adulthood and all the decisions to affect your life, but often times we get caught up in life and figure there's plenty of time to do all that. So at 36 the lines from Pink Floyd's "Time" hit hard.
And then one day you find Ten years have got behind you No one told you when to run You missed the starting gun
In my experience, it's more of a bell curve.
18 year olds are terrible adults, as they are just learning, and through your 20s you start to get your shit together, 30 something, you've built a foundation, and the adulting starts to come naturally. It varies from person to person, but at some point, you stop giving a shit, and slowly become less and less of an adult until you finally revert back into an infant. Crying about things you don't understand and shitting in your pants.
At 43, I'm on my way back down the curve. Definitely less of an adult now than I was 10 years ago.
I'm ~10 years younger than you, if this is my peak I demand a refund
You're an adult, you don't have to do anything but there will be consequences if you don't.
It's more of an exponential curve
I'm 35, never in a relationship, living with my family and I don't have a stable income or job. You tell me
Damn dude, what happened to get to that point?
not op but older and in the same boat but I'm from a developing country 70% poor unemployed single and time moves on
Unfortunately, it’s exponential. You’re a 4x adult.
Oh blimey
Ask me again next year.
I will try to remember.
Mid-30s is when I finally felt like a real adult, so this checks out.
mmmm. i don't think it doubles per se. it just feels like it.
it's more like those decisions when you turn legally adult start to matter and show its effects.
of course, if you're rich, you can just money-bag things out like it never happened.
the chinese calendar has 12 years and they recognize each year with an element. I guess im just saying there is some recognition for how many turns of a wheel a person has done. 60 is a big deal birthday as there are 5 elements.
Not an open-ended question. Locking.
No.
No.
That would be a relief.
