I felt like an actual adult for the first time when I realized that this is true for everyone. It may not be SpongeBob socks, but people don’t fully lose their childhood. They can’t always express it because we don’t accept it societally (though I think we’re getting better), but everyone still has something. I think that’s why people will say that they never really feel like adults, because they see it in themselves, but they can’t recognize it in their peers (or more likely, their mental images of people their age/with their responsibility level that they developed in childhood).

My sister has been a teacher for over two decades and has two children, and I can still make her giggle at a dumb joke or squee over something cute, but that doesn’t mean she’s not a completely capable adult. She, of course, thinks she’s still a kid inside, and I chose her as my example instead of myself, because I think of myself that way too.

At my age, my parents had been together for fifteen years, had a child and owned two houses (boomers, man), whereas I’m newly married to a fellow student and we live in a shithole 35sqm apartment. Of course, I’m an immigrant who spent years mastering the language here and is getting a masters degree in the instruction of that language, and I’m actually pretty accomplished and emotionally mature, but that’s harder to measure as a milestone of adulthood.