IN THE RICE BOX: Clinging Onto 17

OLIVIA CHEUNG
Editor in Chief

When people talk about the “big” stages in life, we talk about our sweet 16—what is depicted as the climax of the teenage experience—and the turning of 18—finally endowed with the legal freedom to do most things as we please—but we often forget the transitional state of age 17.

We go from 16 to 18, often without considering what it means to be 17, one of the most important years of our lives. This is the age when we’re expected to somehow shift gears from the invincibility of adolescence to the fragility and complexity of adulthood. This is the age when we’re expected to perefectly map our future, whether it’s continuing education in college or immediately jumping into the workforce.

For many of us, 17 is when we will make our first mistakes that will carry into adulthood—plenty more to come, surely—and embracing these mistakes is almost contrary to our nature

Every other day, it feels like I won’t be going anywhere with my life, but I’ve learned to accept that it’s natural to have no idea how to spend the next few decades when I’ve only lived a fraction of my life. This year isn’t when our decisions become the “be-all, end-all” of our lives; this is when we decide who we want to be first.

When we look back, it will be easy to remember the sweet 16 gathering with loved ones and the surge of freedom that came with 18, but I will also remember the bittersweet 17, when I learned that what I do wrong is worth the same, if not more, as what I do right.