I really looked forward to my 21st. I wanted to be able to go to the bars, to buy beer at my local 7-Eleven, to be legally empowered to sit on my porch with a bottle of bubbly and watch the sun go down. But when the big day came for me, I ended up taking it in stride for the most part.
It was on a Saturday, so I had the day off work, and I watched college football with my roommates for most of the afternoon. Then in the evening, I went out with a few friends, and after a free shot of Jim Beam and a couple of beers, I headed home. All in all, a pleasant enough experience, but nothing earth-shattering: It was, in fact, dramatically anti-climactic.
In the past, turning 21 was considered a rite of passage, a coming-of-age experience that marks a shift from the innocence of youth to the responsibility of adulthood.
Now, however, that meaning seems to be waning in favor of a wild night of partying and celebration or downright apathy. Is this the first sign of maturity? Or merely the first day of legalized merriment?
Jacob Miskulin, a 20-year-old University junior, has personal reservations about the big 2-1.
“It doesn’t really mean anything to me. It’s not like turning 18, that stage of your life when you leave high school and go to college … more responsibility, more bills to pay, one more fact of adulthood I’m moving toward. Turning 22 and graduating will probably mean more to me than turning 21 halfway through my junior year.”
For all intents and purposes, an individual is legally considered an adult in the U.S. at the age of 18 and immediately gains voting rights, can serve jury duty, get married, join the military, apply for loans and be prosecuted as an adult rather than as a minor.
As Miskulin points out, most 18-year-olds are leaving home for college or an apartment, another positive sign of growth. Without these important individual steps, the significance of turning 21 is greatly reduced.
This doesn’t mean he plans on letting his birthday slip by unnoticed, however.
“I’ll be spending my 21st in New Orleans with my family, as a continuation of our annual trip to Dallas,” he said. “I’m just not waiting to go buy beer and a gun.”
The most obvious change caused by turning 21 is, of course, being legally allowed to purchase alcohol and gain access to bars and nightclubs. And not everyone has the same laid-back approach to their “coming of age” bash I did. I’ll frequently be at a bar, chatting with friends and exchanging sports small talk with the local clientele, only to have the laid-back atmosphere shattered by the arrival of a rowdy crowd of merrymakers busy celebrating someone’s first-ever bar-hop with multiple off-key renditions of “Happy Birthday.”
A typical 21st experience consists of hoards of people congregating in run-down apartments to pre-game, consuming a massive intake of cheap beer and vodka, and then moving the party to the nearest bar when the clock strikes midnight to complete the utter inebriation of the birthday boy or girl. Often, the previous night’s festivities are reduced to a blur or barely remembered at all the following day.
But what sort of a sign of mental growth and maturity is that? It’s more like an example of crazy, thoughtless youth. Additionally, most
college students (myself included) have indulged in a cold one or four while being underage, so enjoying an “adult beverage” isn’t exactly a novelty. As a result, some people don’t put much store in the seemingly obligatory over-celebration.
Isaac Callagan, a student who recently turned 21, shared those sentiments.
“On my 21st, I enjoyed an unconvincing Duck win over Arizona State and had a Pabst Blue Ribbon, hot wings, and tater tots at the O Bar & Grill.”
Not exactly a good time straight out of “The Hangover.”
“I feel that it’s built up to be something important, but once you get there it’s not nearly as significant.” Callagan said. “Society has built it up to be way more than it actually is. I don’t have to ask other people to buy my alcohol. That’s seriously all it means to me.”
Traditionally, children reach certain age benchmarks and gain additional privileges as they grow older. Society has arbitrarily attributed the 18th birthday with adulthood, and all the freedoms it entails. Once adulthood is achieved, and you can elect a government official, give your life in service to your country and find ways around those few limitations remaining on you, it seems almost redundant to hold those freedoms in reserve.
In reality, one’s 21st birthday has little meaning anymore. When the only real difference separating a 21-year-old and a 20-year-old are the rights to buy and consume alcohol, and the right to own a handgun, you can’t really expect it to mean much more than yet another excuse for college students to party.
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