But I'm not ready to be 18!

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If you're not being shoved out the door, don't worry about it. Not much else changes. It might feel bad if other people are doing things you can't or aren't ready to do at that age, though.

That's exactly it.

I am twice that, and I don't think I've become adult by the popular definitions.

I don't particularly find this a negative thing, but it is often a frustrating thing.

I mean, unless you intended some subtext there?

No, no - it's just that I've never quite got this idea of 'growing up' and watched with some bemusement as everyone around me goes all serious-like, hatches a family and plays the 'managerial advancement' game with their careers and life.
Meanwhile, I skip along in my own childlike (not childish) state, still amazed and excited by those things that 'grown-ups' stop doing or even noticing.

Ahahahah, this line made my day .

Thanks peoples. I know, it's just a number, but just generally, I feel as if there is a hefty amount of responsibility coming my way, that I just want to push back. Hard to explain that, but yeah...

Hey, when I was your age I didn't know how to drive, or cook (well, a few things, like, the kind of things you make as a kid because you're sooo hungry) or know a lot of that stuff. Don't worry, you'll pick some of it up, and realize some of it isn't all that important, and other things you eh, maybe can't get but it might not be as huge a deal as you think...

and then as you get older you'll start to panic about different things like omg I don't know how to do my taxes, and car loans? I don't understand half the terms on this paper? What's this letter saying, do I owe them money, do they owe me money? What's up with this? And why can't I put that in the washer with this garment? Where are the frigging instructions to any of this? Why didn't they teach me any of this in school, it would have been much more useful than knowing the names of 17th century farming implements!?!

I'd like to say it all gets easier as you get older, but really you just get different life markers and questions to panic over not knowing. And after a while you start to look around and realize a lot of other people aren't getting it either, they're just doing a better job of pretending to.

Actually it is just the first thing that came to mind on the spur of the moment as I was trying to think of some ordinary real world example of something in the time domain. But considering that I spent much of my life working in radar and with orbital mechanics it is probably understandable how that example came to mind. It is not my usual description of age so you can still retain your uniqueness and individuality. It also sounds like something my dad might have said.

I'm glad you liked it. I've been using that description for about 5-10 years now ever since the day when I got stuck in traffic in a left turn lane behind some woman who looked like she was getting off so heavily on shoving that blasted thing into her ear that everything else in the world (including her driving) was of no consequence at all. That is when the analogy struck me and I've been calling them ear dildos ever since. The words don't exactly roll off the tongue all that smoothly, but it sure does describe how people use them. Feel free to spread the term far and wide. Maybe we can all unite and make ear dildo addicts look exactly like they are.

Here's another funny story about them. Back in the days before businesses started putting up signs forbidding their use, I walked into a supermarket branch of my bank one day to cash a check. There was some woman standing in line talking on one of these things so I treated it like someone who was there to talk on the phone and not to do business at the bank. I didn't even flinch as I walked right on around her and took my place in the front of the line ahead of her. She didn't say anything at all to me about it, but instead started complaining to the person on the other end of the phone saying something like, "hey I don't know what's going on here but people are walking right around me like I'm not even here". Naturally that person on the other end of the line couldn't do anything at all about it, but to that woman they were the real world and not the physical world where she was standing. Talk about being out of touch with reality? It served her right because after all, she was there to talk on the phone and not to deal with the bank.

21 was when it home to me. I had looked forward to it all my teen years so I could finally drink legally and now it was all over. No more age milestones to look forward to. Now I dread each upcoming year. All we can do is make the most of what we have. Some parts of being an adult are no fun...but there are some perks

18 is still very young, though. You still have PLENTY of growing up to do at that age. I've matured more mentally in the past two and a half years than in my whole life. Its a good thing.

Yeah, I hear you.

You're not the only one...

...and I'm twenty-two.

I didn't think of myself as an adult until I was 23. And even then I didn't behave like one.

That's just surreal.
A pet hate of mine is those damned Uhura clones, wandering around with their Bluetooth earpieces. They always seem to look right at me when they're talking on them, and I'm like "WTF? Who are you, and why are you talking to me?".

Exactly! Do what you can when you can.

I spent most of my teenage life worrying about how I would manage when I had to finally get a job and live independently. At 16 I was forced to get my first job due to financial problems in my family. Not only that, but the job was telemarketing, so I was forced to sit on the phone with strangers for 8 hours a day. I'm 26 now, and still live at home, don't drive, can't cook most things, and still have a nonexistent social life. Most of those things I could care less about, but being forced to take that first step probably helped me alot in the long run. Maybe something will happen where you are forced to take that first step into adulthood soon, but until then I wouldn't worry too much about it.