Making of a Man or Woman

I'm going to start off this post with a journal entry I wrote at age 13:

It's weird to think that Joseph Smith was only about 14 when he had his 1st vision. When I was about 5, 14 was way old, so it wasn't a big deal. But now that I'm closer to his age, and I know what it's like, it seems incredible. I mean, I can't imagine any of the 14 year old boys I know having a vision.

One summer when I was five or six I went to a day camp. I didn't know the counselors' last names, which stressed me out because it felt wrong to call these people, who seemed from my perspective to be adults, by their first names. I expressed my concerns to my mother, who told me that using their first names was fine, and they were just teenagers anyway.

By the time I was in high school, I found it odd when other teens considered themselves to be basically grown up. We were all still immature kids. More self-sufficient than we had been, sure, but kids all the same.

When I was about 12, I thought I would never feel like I was old enough to date. Well, it turns out I did. Right around the time when I got old enough to date. So I thought that maybe it would work out that way for other milestones. But it turns out that for one, at least, it didn't. The use of the word "woman" in reference to myself. I have actually called myself a woman once or twice, but it just doesn't feel right. Some of my peers I am comfortable with calling men and women, sometimes, but then I'll turn around and call them boys and girls in the next sentence.

In the media, as far as I am aware, people are referred to as men and women from the time they turn 18, when they are legally adults. I suppose it's good to have a distinct cutoff point, and that is probably the most logical place they can put it, but I sometimes find a news story humorous or just absurd when I read or hear about a 19-year-old woman. After all, I often think of people in their late 20s as boys and girls these days.

Going back to my high school years, at some point then I noticed that when a young man left on his mission, he seemed like a boy to me. When he came back, he seemed like a man. So I thought that could be what made a boy into a man. But now when I meet recently returned missionaries, they often seem like little boys to me.

But maybe the mission definition was on the right track. Not that it is a rite of passage that turns all boys into men, but that real outside life experiences, serious responsibility, hard work, service, sacrifice, and devotion to something higher than yourself are the major factors in the change.

Possibly becoming a man or a woman is the sort of thing that is never completely done. It definitely is not something that is done all at once.

Maybe people just keep going back and forth between being kids and adults throughout their lives.