What if you got your drivers license, graduated college or got married later in life instead of at the expected age? Would that make your life any less meaningful?
People should live their lives however they want, and society needs to stop assigning “ideal” ages to milestones in life.
There are a myriad of milestones in life where people are, in a sense, expected to complete them by a certain age, such as buying a house, retiring, or landing a “real” job.
For example, most people may get their drivers license at the age of 16 with restrictions such as needing someone who is licensed in the car with you, and also a curfew with nighttime driving. In 34 states, people can get their provisional license at 16 years of age. However, there may be factors that prevent people from getting their license, such as having a late birthday or even not wanting to drive.
I didn’t get my license until I was 17 years old. In my case, I was scared of driving for the longest time, so I kept putting off the behind the wheel hours needed to get your license. In addition, COVID-19 was in full swing during my junior year of high school, and everything, including the DMVs, was closed.
Therefore, I had to wait until they reopened before going to get my license. Even though I reached this milestone later in life, it didn’t impact me negatively. When I’ve reached milestones later in life, it’s helped me to realize that I’m not a failure and reaching milestones later in life is OK.
Typically, students are 22 when they graduate from college — assuming they complete a standard four-year bachelor’s degree after graduating high school at age 18.
However, this doesn’t include people who may graduate from college early, or those who take a break from college and go back later in life to get their degree. Sometimes people may take a break from college for financial reasons or life changes, according to Inside Higher Ed.
You’re never too old to go back to school or even graduate from college. In 2022, at the age of 90, Joyce DeFauw graduated from NIU with a bachelor’s degree in general studies. DeFauw’s commitment and dedication proves you’re never too old to accomplish anything in life.
The major problem with assigning specific ages to achievements is that it could lead people to feel like a failure if they “fall behind.” As someone who is a fifth-year student and will be graduating college at 23, instead of 22, there have been times where I’ve felt like a failure or have felt like I’ve fallen behind. However, at the end of the day, I’ve found my passion and have learned life will take whatever path it’s meant to take.
People shouldn’t feel worthless if they haven’t achieved certain things at a certain age. Instead, they should be grateful for what they have achieved.
These expectations of achieving life milestones is unfair and completely disregards those who may face challenges such as economic challenges or health-related challenges. For example, with the rising student loan debt, which is $1.814 trillion, people may have a hard time being able to afford college, and therefore may decide to work and save up money instead of going to college straight out of high school.
As for other life milestones, such as getting married or starting a family, people may decide they don’t want to get married or have a family. If people decide that, then we shouldn’t shame them for their decision.
By not attaching ages to life milestones, people won’t put pressure on themselves, compare themselves to others and will gain more freedom. This added freedom gives individuals more potential for happiness in their life, according to The Financial Diet.
Ultimately, everyone’s timeline of life is different. People can hit milestones at any age, or possibly not at all, and still maintain a good life. Life shouldn’t be based on whether people achieve milestones and people shouldn’t be made fun of or ashamed for not hitting certain milestones. There’s no such deadline to achieve things in life, and we should not be attaching an age to achievements.
Life is a journey that should be enjoyed and celebrated. Everyone has their own unique path in life, and we need to stop measuring our lives based on whether we achieved something at a certain age or not.
