Definitely agree with JeffB. Going from 17 to 18 wasn't as big a change as I thought. I went to college, and did some things that adults normally do, but it wasn't a sudden change where I had to grow up instantly. Those who do grow up instantly are the weird/boring ones IMHO.

If you don't want to let go of your childhood innocence and personality, there are plenty of ways to hang onto it for the rest of your life. There are many elderly people who will tell you they never grew up, and they are a kid at heart, and the older I become, the more I embrace that. Part of being mature is knowing appropriate times to be serious, and appropriate times to not be serious. IMHO a mature person can be as childlike as they like so long as they can become serious when they have to, and behave responsibly. So long as you can do that, then IMHO you are as grown up as anyone else, and even more so in some cases - there are people who are at least twice your age who still do childish things and can't stop themselves to save their lives, literally. The big reason for this is that people who think they are grown-up, who think they are responsible enough, start doing adult things they aren't ready for like drinking alcohol. Those who can't drink responsibly, who decide to drive while intoxicated, or who allow themselves to become stupid and determined enough to jump off cliffs to find pokeymon, who act like a child with dangerous things like alcohol in hand, are taking huge risks which they likely don't care about, or foolishly assume that they will be exempt from. A real adult will know when they have drank enough alcohol and stop, or will know if they drank too much and act appropriately. An irresponsible child in an adult's body will rarely think about such things. If at 17 you are already contemplating changing your life to become an adult, I'd say you have nothing at all to worry about, and growing up comes naturally to you.

I'm 24 now and mentally I am almost in the same place I was when I was 12 or 13, in some areas anyway. In others, such as serious discussion about life and other deep topics, I am a little older, but only when I feel there is a need to bring out that side of me. It's not a place i particularly enjoy going. I do things on a regular basis which make me cringe, things which may make people half my age cringe. The thought of tackling what I perceived at 17 to be an adult life frankly still scares the crap out of me. Even though I have been slowly edging toward the adult life I envisioned at 17, I am nowhere near where my 17-year-old self thought I should have been. But I've grown to accept that I was wrong and my expectations were largely unfounded. I've also accepted that my 24-year-old self will undoubtedly be wrong in just as many, if not even more ways. I will not discover those ways until far in the future when I am old . Life is supposed to be fun and happy. Don't worry about growing up unless there is something specific needing attention such as your education, housing, finding a living etc. Don't worry about the little things you feel you aren't allowed to do anymore; it's not worth it. There's a time and a place for anything, trust me.

Hello everyone. I thank you for your encouragement. I do like to distract myself... Games, schoolwork, I'm reading American Gods right now. Very distracting. But to answer your question, my major will be creative writing and my minor some form of journalism.

when I was 10-15, everyone said how old I was for my age. I more readily got on with adults than anyone around my own age, someone even told me when I was ttwelve I came across like an 18 year old.

When I was 18-22 everything seemed to be going right, the world and I were in step I was doing things that I liked and meeting people I could get on with.
Three years on and 25 and I was feeling like I was older than God and absolutely past it, that all the good stuff I'd had had gone west.

now at 35 I'm here, in a new house, a new town and actually married something I'd have never expected to happen, about to start doing some different things with my life.

I say this because one thing I've learned,  that the older you get, the less biological and psychological age mean.
Childishness, i.e. selfishness, shallowness, thoughtlessness as Jeff said are possible at any age, just last week I met an old witch in her  who acted like  a spoiled little girl (and no, her mental faculties were all present, she was just an unpleasant person).

On the other hand, I can think of fifteen year olds I've met who show astounding amounts of wisdom.

Myself, I tend to believe that innocence, the ability to take joy in things around you  is something you earn. Not all children are born with it by default (believe me I've seen some right miserable little gits), and certainly not all adults manage it either, indeed many don't.

It's the same with my lady and I. sometimes we're like a pair of giddy teenagers in love, doing silly things together and laughing, sometimes, we're like an old married couple who've  been married for sixty years   one and a half.

In the end, 18 is just a number. Yeah, it's the point that a lot of governments have decided you can legally get married and drink alcohol and what not, it's what you do that counts and where your upbringing has put you, and that's up to you to decide, which is true of everyone of any age.

Make sure that the experience you end up with is not experience for the sake of experience; let it teach you something you'll never forget and make you more of a person.  Learn to reason, to internalize, to accept when comprehension is beyond you, when a fact is far too profound to understand and choices have brought about consequences greater than you feel like you can tackle.  Nine times out of ten I have to remind myself that I don't know what the blazes I'm doing, but that regardless of everything I'm doing there's always a bigger picture I'm just too blind to see in its entirety... No pun intended.
forgive me if this sounds like I'm bordering on the spiritual side of things; I'm honestly trying not to because I know not everyone believes the same way I do, and I do my best to accept and respect that, but the truth is that in spite of our beliefs, our lives are so amazingly woven together that what one person says today can make an entire world of difference to the individual who hears it, and we only need to look at those around us to see this in action.  Clap your hands enough times and you'll anoy someone.  Sing someone's favorite song just the right way or wrong way and you can make them like it or hate it respectively.  How many one hit wonders exist as earworms that we'll go on singing for years to come?  How many of them have a ton of controversy surrounding them?  Why is cyber bullying such a big hit with the media?
The consequence of one's actions is hard to predict, but ultimately we'll end up sparking a chain of events which in turn may or may not cause other people's actions, which in turn lead to yet more events and event sequences.  That's life in a nutshell, a series of questions and choices that make or break you.  Like or dislike someone, pay them a compliment or cast them an insult, trust or distrust, help or hurt; there can be no cause without an effect.  At the end of the day, assuming you haven't died, your life goes on, and that gives you one more chance to take a shot at living.  maybe it seems obvious right now, but there may just as well come a time when you'll want to give up, when you'll want it all to end because you've hit so many walls and other obstacles you just don't know how to go on, but you already know the answer, and I know you know because you wrote it, thus I'll quote you in saying, "I suppose that's all up to me."  If you remember nothing else, remember that.

Nice one, aaron!  Another example is this here story if I may:
About six years ago, a woman had a child, a child who's father did not want him whatsoever, telling the woman that she should have the pregnancy terminated regardless whether she wanted the baby or not.  She refused and gave birth to a boy whom she cared for diligently.  Through thick and thin that woman struggled to raise this child; her mother assisted as much as she could.  Eventually, the child's father left.  Some time later, the woman met another man whom she was willing to trust and allow into her life.  At what promised to be the height of their relationship, what could have transformed their life into something golden and presented opportunities beyond imagining, this man too walked out on her, after nearly two years, this time not only leaving her in a financial hole she wasn't sure she could get out of, but leaving the woman's mother in debt as well, for the woman's mother had just paid down some $2000 for them to live comfortably and peacefully in a rather luxurious home.
devastated and still with a child who's father had, up to that point, shown no signs of interest in him whatsoever, that woman joined a prayer group in late November of 2014.  Unsure of where to turn to and what to do with her life, she attempted in many senses to keep together what promised to be a bankrupt relationship with this man who, she discovered by his own admission was leading her and another young woman on.  Deeply hurt by his revelation with a child who had just turned 3 years old and a mother who had recently suffered a work related back injury, she pushed onward with her college education and any other commitments on her plate.
Before the year drew to a close, this woman confided everything to a once hardened and rather enigmatic, secretive seeming individual.  What she saw in him the world may never know, but it allowed her to trust in spite of her pain, to love in place of where hate might have been.  On and on she confided to this now somewhat softened, gentle soul, so that by the beginning of February she was certain that at the very least, she had to meet him.  they agreed to this but both suggested that it should not take place until mid to late March so that all the details could be worked out.  Little did she know that she was about to fall into yet worse trouble than she had yet encountered in life.
It was the night of February 13th, 2015.  Coughing severely and massively congested she cradled her young child to her chest, attempting to soothe him to sleep.  Succeeding at long last, having had to battle the child's intensely curious, easily excitable and imaginative mind, she struggled to her feet, both weak and exhausted, trying to catch her breath.  She was sure this was no common cold as she had previously guessed, and no medication was bringing her an ounce of relief.  Bedding him down for the night, making sure he was tucked in, safe and sound, she left him, quietly as she could, collapsing into her own bed where she attempted to sleep but found that rest too had abandoned her.
Early on Valentine's day morning she finally called her mother with pain in her chest and a simple request to be taken to the hospital as quickly as possible.  There she waited for a few hours while medical technicians rushed around her doing goodness only knew what, for she was heavily medicated almost upon arrival to try and ease the pain and coughing which the doctors were certain was exceptionally dangerous and might have already caused one of her lungs to collapse.  Mustering what strength she could, now lethargic owing to the lack of sleep and the medication coursing through her body, she made a phone call to the one person she was absolutely certain would listen to her and anything she had to say, for he had been doing this almost constantly for the past 3 months or so. Upon calling she reached his voicemail and left a message in which she pleaded desperately for only one thing.  With her mother taking care of her child and in her medically fragile state, unsure of what the next few days would bring, she knew only that she didn't want to face them alone.  "I need you here,"  she quietly whispered.
How could she have known that her plea would be answered?  How could she have known that he would leave it all behind?  How could she possibly even begin to imagine that the solidity and stability of his life would not be more important than her own?  Might it be possible that he would simply say no?  could he turn out to be just as, if not more cruel than every other man she had thus far deeply confided in?  Might he assume the worst of her and say that she was mentally unstable and that he shouldn't pay attention to a single word she had spoken?
By the next day they discovered she had a severe case of pneumonia.  Now massively confused as if living in a fog and still heavily coughing, she lay back and awaited whatever the future might bring, hoping she could just get out of all of this and back to living her life.  Profusely sweating and feverish with her lips turning blue, she did her best to sleep while the doctors pumped her full of antibiotics and pain medication as well as trying her on several cough depressants, all of which failed miserably.  Made worse by her already weakened, compromised immune system, her sickness and the medication continued to hold her in place in a hospital that was understaffed and which had at many other times failed to properly prioritize.
It was during this time that she received an answer.  Yes, he said he would come, and he'd stay as long as need be, to take care of her and her child however possible.  with roughly a hundred dollars to his name and a bag full of clothes, he left it all behind, never to return, for little could either one of them have guessed that this, was the beginning of the journey of a lifetime.  His life had, up to that point, had plans that involved many other people, plans that might themselves had presented chances he would have jumped at.  All of that came to a swift and sudden conclusion on the 16th, when he boarded the plane that would take him to his soon to be wife.
Two and a half years later, we are still married, still learning, still struggling.  Two and a half years later, we've added two more to the family.  Two and  a half years later, we've gone through so many crazy situations in which we've practically lost it all except each other and our children.  Two and a half years later we've already lived in three different places.  Two and a half years later our lives have been changed from top to bottom as we've both helped others and been helped by others.  Two and a half years later I feel like I've lived a completely different lifetime that I'd willingly live again.
We've had our house flooded, been screwed out of hundreds of dollars, been told we'd amount to nothing, lost all our groceries owing to both technical difficulties and weather disasters, had all of our children hospitalized with this or that thing, ended up severely sick ourselves, allowed ourselves to become deeply frustrated, exceptionally concerned, frighteningly depressed and feeling like we've reached the end of our rope.  Today we're looking at an overdrawn bank account and waiting for money that was promised but hasn't come, my wife is lying in bed with multiple ear infections and what we're almost certain is a relapse of that same thing which brought me here to begin with, and our baby is not gaining weight properly, sometimes close to choking on what she drinks, and we can do nothing as the doctors are clueless as to what might be causing all this mess where she's concerned.  Is this a complaint?  No, it's a set of facts that make for an ongoing story which has yet to end, and while our parts in it may conclude we know not when, the story will continue until the end of time.  Who knows' how many lives we'll touch before that day, but we continue onward, because we have a purpose to which we are tied, inescapably linked, and at the end of the day, we still have each other.

Wow.
Its good all of you guys had a good experience.
For me Um well, how to turn my raging which I still feel into tips.
Well In no actual order because I have loads and loads of them here we go.
Firstly and above all, everything you are told at school and at your various independence  courses and job type courses is a lie at least it was for me.
In school you are pushed into the line that you will get a job, a family, kids, loads of cash and have a really cool life.
If I could travel back in time I'd tell my self how fucked up life is and that I should either kill myself or fight back and actually not go with the flow.
I sadly went with the flow assuming that I would automatically pass go and collect my 200 dollars.
I really wish now knowing what I know now that I was more proactive and really tried to push myself in the direction I should have gone which I know is really hard, but I didn't.
As soon as you leave school you will notice a few things.
1.  not everyone is your friend, jobs are hard or can be hard to come buy.
Your funding agency of choice will give you the run about.
You may have to fight for what you believe and your equipment choice must not be default.
I got what I was told worked and boy did I pay for it.
Always chace up never assume, thats how I recieved stuff late in the piece  ie when I didn't need it anymore.
Never ever stop fighting for your rights as a person.
Not the blindness entitled type thing but rights in general.
In school you are put on a line which if you don't watch it you can assume like I did that you will advance to the next and the next line.
I went to 2 job courses and a living schools flatting course.
I didn't notice it till the age of 24 when university was finnished.
I had a good support network but sadly due to visual papers I had to cut out early.
Here is the thing though.
You are now free to do what you need to do.
Sadly allyour job and vocational staff that were creative at least in new zealand are well not existing.
You are recomended to jump on job search sites and job add lists.
Don't even bother you won't find work  there.
In fact I'd go as far to say your blind organisation job advice service is total crap at least mine was, no help there.
If you can actively look for things yourself online then again you may be lucky, socalising is the key, and not just the blind, almost anyone, you need to have an idea and push what you want to do and you will get there.
Eventually, that is, I mean I am still trying to be optimistic and I am still not in the right place.
The only thing I have managed to do is complete my cv, however it appears that if you are not the outgoing type and I am not, jumping on the train will eventually yeald the last station.
Then you need to go by bus and wait at the station.
I am still waiting for that bus.
Its not to bad as such, I live with my family, but thats not for ever.
Eventually I guess I will find some disabled home to live I guess, its an end, not the best end, but an end that I can see to be honest.
I am still bitter about my early years of over expectations.
In school as I said your expectations are put up so high so when reality comes in you have a long way to fall down.
For me before courses, I was happy as a poor helpless blind person.
My life was happy then, I knew no better.
Now, I don't know, I know more, but it does me no good.
I know I am still not where I should be or need to be in the new world order.
The world has left me by the side of the road though and has done that for the last 10 years.
Every so often I have a spasm and try to make something but it never pans out.
I know beggers can't be choosers, but a selfish part of me would be happy to be told that I was helpless and to go home.
Its a bit of myself that is bitter still.
The 2 agencies I had were the main ones here, all the run about, all the bad equipment and experiences all the extra issues at uni with visual stuff I couldn't do, and afterwards well I just don't know.
If you have a scholarship thats good.
I guess what I am trying to say, is don't  take things at face value as I did, and don't expect that when you are told you will reach the high tower's top that you will go no more than the first step.
If you get there and can hold it like the donky cong or pinball games thats all well and good.
But like in donky cong, there are just to many plumbers with their pesky barrels trying to knock you off.
Here is the thing, when you are in school and the support networks that exist while they try to get you to work, then you are fine.
In reality though you are just another person, and in the end you are less of one almost it feels like it to me.
But then my experiences with the various services were less than perfect.
I don't know exactly who I need to rage at but I wish I knew.
The fact of the matter was that at the age of 26 I simply decided that my life was over.
All that happened was I spun round and round like a tire stuck in the mud and I thought, "stop it" I've have had enough of this life.
I am unsure if anything would have happened if I hadn't taken the life I was given those years.
Its true life is a little better, but its still my standard helpless blindy life to be honest.
A few more friends, walks, excercise, a computer, spending my cash on music and online stuff which well I do from time to time.
Doing some online jobs, and a few odd ball things.
But is it the life I wanted or was expected to push into I don't know.
I do know my previous life was almost exactly the same except I sat at my computer all day long.
If I have any more tips the only thing I can say is don't fall into the traps I unknowing put myself into by thinking things would go like the energiser bunny, it simply isn't.
If you are about 23-5 and having issues, its probably almost to late.
Sadly after you graduate university a lot of your supposed entitlements fall off.
If I want a service in my organisations of choice for some of them I am expected to pay for them at discounted rates.
I am expected to just get on with it and if I need support I need to ask for it and maybe even pay for extras.
In my younger years even till the age of 23, the systems that existed sheltered me from most of it.
I didn't have to pay, I am blind and entitled to everything because I am blind and because I am blind I am entitled to everything.
Its fine for when you are young they don't expect you to exactly do everything yourself after all you are poor and helpless.
However when you get old enough they do expect you to actually have the right to control of your entitlements.
You are still entitled to things because you are blind but you need to pay for some and ask for some you don't get given your life, and if like me you just went along and didn't realise it till now well sort of almost now its a bit of a shock.
The twist to this state of affairs is this.
At least in new zealand we as the blind didn't start getting mainstreamed fully till 1990-2000 and eventually have our own union.
Being entitled to things is fine, but the last and most important thing you should be entitled to is control of your rights.
I understand from someone in the industry now is that unlike me who just came out of the protected system age, is that this comes from the start and in fact once you start school you have full control of your rights and what you get.
You can say I want more or I don't want more or I don't want this at all and I really don't like want or need that.
For us as humans its a step up.
Rather from behing told this and that and thats all you can do.
For me growing up slightly inside that envelope though it was what tripped me up.
I started with the old, and then just after university well during it that changed.
In fact control was for me when I hit uni and not before.
Then again I shouldn't moan.
In the year of 1982 I was born and at least earlier about 30-40 years ago, well now almost 60 years which itself is quite new, you had no control.
Life for you was given to you and you were told to do this and that and thats what happened.
For the helpless blind it must have been an easy if boring life though.
The fact you didn't realise that you had no control scares me.
I'd never resign my control right to what I have, its just that the switchover of systems at least for me is like getting a new system with no driver cds, poor 24 hour support, and defective hardware with no cashback because the seller is bank rupt and a new system costs far to much to buy and your dog just ate your windows cd.
For you and especially those of you born after 2000 or born in 1990 or even a little later than that, the new system is what you should have access to and so it should work well should, who knows.
For me, I have switched over but while all my data survived switchover I have no manual, and some of my software is out of date and I can't update it because all the sites I got to for it don't work.
Even now that most of that is resolved, I am still running xp, and due to something can't go higher right now if ever.
I guess I neeed to find a way in but after the bad experiences I have had, I am well I wouldn't say unwilling, but hesitant to even try could be better.
For me now 35 though, the ways in I had are now closed.
There is probably a way in, but I have to make the way in, and at any rate about 15 years or so exist from right now to the limits.
after that its another 20 years till I get to retirement age.
Then the auto recycling system starts and its all the way down from here.
Not for me that it matters that much.
There comes a time in life where you just decide that you are through with fighting and its time to sit in your pit and watch the world go buy.
I am not exactly hiding under a rock but the world or a great part of it is certainly slipping through my fingers.
I don't want or need the crazy stress filled office type world but I do want something a little more stable right now and maybe a little more reason to live a non wastefull life.
I do continue but I really have to push myself to continue to live.
There is a part of me that is still bitter and that part while it doesn't control me doesn't want to live anymore.
When topics like this come up, I remember something I chould have had but don't.
So dragomia you have a chance.
Please don't spoil it if you can.
Thats not saying it won't spoil but going with the flow aint the answer.
I wish I could have told myself that that was a stupid idiotic thing to do and not to do it.
Its not the only stupid thing I have ever done by any means but for me it is one of the biggest for me.
I am not sure if continuing   to fight or even continue would eventually yeald something but there are just to many unknowns in this world.
And with that I go to lunch.

Thanks to all who read the above post and got something out of it; I try to put my heart into every word I write out here.  I've gotten that compliment about going into writing books and the like from my mother-in-law of all people.  Sadly, I'm good at retelling true stories; I'm not good with imagining ficticious works into being, though I'm honestly slightly jealous of those who are as I wish I could.

Well coledge for me is high school for you guys in the us its university or tech or something like that I suspect.
Well I guess university is ok if you are outgoing, can fight for your rights and not go on automatic.
For me I let it go, got support and struggled through courses at certifficate level almost dropping one because of visual papers.
To continue past certifficate level well required some graphic design papers and as I was getting fed up I decided to just fuck right off and say fuck it all and fuck off the rest of you even though I had 3 years of scholarship left.
with  this pluss equipment issues, screenreaders not coming on time, and general muck about with agencies concerned I guess I should have put my fists up earlier but I didn't.
Having come out of a partly mainstreamed system where half was still in specialised units and institutions meant I didn'
't exactly have the drive, I mean I didn't have the drive.
One thing to know and take note of off the bat.
Is that your high education institution will be saying to you you will get a job and well you will get there.
You won't because you are blind, and disabled and basically useless, not that you are alone.
Its hard enough for the average sighted joe to even get a job, and that is at any age.
Its harder for any disabled person blind or otherwise to get a job.
One of my friends is autistic asbergis I think.
It doesn't stop him, he walks a lot, enjoys computers and likes to work.
But he has energy issues, needs to sleep most of the day, and can only work 2 hours a day.
He has got some work and enjoys it massively.
Yet when the ressession happened in 2008, he was one of the first let go.
When I worked briefly in a school tutoring people on computers, well mainly blind people, there was a problem with access, I decided to report this to the people involved.
The student system logged in to a staff email system to do the report, talk about misconfiguration.
I was not happy, and neither was the school who accused me for hacking their network and fired me.
So I guess they want misconfigured swisscheese as a network.
If you are blind, while legally you are treated the same, expect to be treated as either a poor or helpless or a fat fucking football.
I still am unsure how when a hole appears in the network people just fire the opperator it just doesn't make sence.
So it depends, is it worth colledge.
Well if you get a scholarship and can fund bits of your materials and transcription as long as there is a good support centre it is.
On the other hand, your blindy no going anywhere semi helpless life to be honest is better than normal life.
I tried my darndest to get to that job, and I am basically back where I started.
Before that I was sleeping all day, eating to much and living the poor helpless blindy life.
I am a step up from the dirt but it does me no good.
I'd prefur to have not known the world to be honest.
Poor helpless and retarded is better then jobless, and no prospects really.
Ofcause telling a sightling about this is no good, they can't understand disabled people as such, only disabled people can understand disabled because they have to face the same thing.
I have few blind friends though which sucks.
You are not as fast as normals I accept that.
But I would really have liked to be told exactly what my prospects were and not given a load of bool about it.
I would have accepted it just the same.
I do get the random job contract but it aint enough.
Worse I need to semi lie to the government that I actually want to work.
I do but I don't have a job and little prospect to get one.
But to avoid my benifits cut I have to lie and say that I want to work to avoid the disabled work scheme.
And yes I know friends more helpless and some more retarded than me that have to work putting bottle tops on bottles and things on other things.
Most of these people and some are my friends enjoy this life.
But for me growing up with sightlings and middle class people including my family, I know that its just a scheme to get the helpless to work at minimal or less wage.
There is no future.
Its basically to late for me unless I get a break.
So think where you want to go, you may find it good or not.
If you want to go be prepaired to fight is all I will say.
I wasn't and fuck I really wish I did.

Well aren to be honest if you are that way inclined, you are well on the way to not being automatic which is the key.
Chances are that if you keep your ears pealed as it were you can probably snag a job or so.
You seem to be out there and not in the normal point, as long as you don't go on automatic which judging by your post you won't you should be ok.
The issues I had came from the fact that when I went through school, I advanced up the ladder with a promise of a pot of jewelry and gold at the end.
I climbed the ladder, got to the top, did uni and a few more courses and even some extra dj courses with a friend.
I finnished my cv and found that not only is there no way to the other side but that there is no way down either till the ladder rusts.
I am set up for, blankness.
I have reached the top, what do I do now?
Is anyone here?
Obviously they all know and have left me here.
The qustion will you need a job.
Probably you will but you are the sort of guy that is outgoing which is a thing I am not, you shouldn't have issues finding something to do.
The fact you are doing loads of things means you have a few job opps right there so yeah.
For me, life is busy, but sometimes I feel it.
While at home with the family ofcause I am still sheltered from some of that life stuff.
But they will not live for ever, and so eventually I will have to climb down the ladder to find what is left.
I semi know what may be waiting for me the guy that didn't get over, but for now I live the fake blindy life, spending cash, and enjoying a life I couldn't if I didn't live at home.
Soon that life will be over.
I guess I will have some carer maybe though here that costs, and maybe a few other things who knows.
For me, I need the right kick to get started, once I am started its no issue.

@crashmaster no one said it would be easy. Also I'm sorry you weren't told that education is expensive. I saved money by going to community college for my Associates degree but now I have some student loans from my BA degree. I am going to have even more debt thanks to grad school and the fact that I got into one of the top Universities. Still the point isn't how hard it is going to be to pay off college loans, or get a job. That stuff is tough for even a sighted adult. The point is when it comes down to it that being an adult isn't all responsibility, trials, and hardships. You can still maintain some of that inner child and have fun! If you pick a path you are interested in and it leads to a career you like doing then it will be worthwhile in the end. When I graduated high school I was told that this was the beginning of a new adventure! Even though I took public transportation to school, and was a lot more independent it was still just more school for me. It wasn't until 7 years after high school that I am finally starting to feel that things are changing for me. I am finally going to be entering my field and it may take you some time to get there or maybe it won't. The thing to remember is that in college you can take things at your own pace. If things are going to fast take 1 or 2 less classes. If you want all classes that only meet 2 3 days a week you can do that more easily. It may seem scary now but when you are back sitting in class again it will be a lot of the same. The change won't come that drastically.

I honestly don't remember my 18th birthday; I must have woken up and done something on that day, but what precisely I couldn't tell you.  The one thing I do know for sure is that you won't feel any different.  It's not until you're in your late 20's/early 30's that you'll probably start noticing time and really caring about it, particularly if you feel like you've wasted too much of it in your past, given time is something you just, can't get back.