I’m starting to read Chap Clark’s book “Hurt” as part of my volunteer commitment to the Bel Air high school group. It is about where adolescents today are in the world at large. They have created their own subculture because they feel ostracized by the adults around them. This is all well and good and I have just begun to read the book, but already I am learning so much. An interesting part is that Clark says that adolescence lasts until the early twenties. And the research that he did to write this book was when I was in my last year of high school. So for me, it’s weird to read about how adolescents feel about such and such when this book is not about adolescents now, but about me and my friends. And the strange part is to see that it’s true. And suddenly I’m finding that I do feel like a kid still. A kid and an adult living in between. I am not fully independent because I am still in school and do not have a job that will pay all my bills the way I need them to be paid. But I’m not a kid because the pressure is there for me to be doing things on my own. I’ve been living on my own for years and making my own decisions without having to consult my parents. But now I realize why I understand these teenagers so well because I’m just leaving the same world they are so fully immersed in now. And I still look like a teenager. Which just adds to my feelings of being too young to be doing anything really on my own. So the real question is, when do we finally grow up? Is it how we feel? Is it when we get a job? Is it when we get married and have kids? When do I get to be a real person?