text: do today's youth grow up too fast or not fast enough? some college students graduate and either jump right into jobs or go back to school (could be putting off growing up a bit) and then jump right into jobs.  are they rushing it or do they simply understand responsibility?   others graduate and keep their part time jobs, move back in with their parents and keep up their college ways.  are they slacking or do they simply know how to experience and treasure their youth?     which is better?  what is a good compromise? the answer to this question is yes.  first, all the growth hormones we're pumping into food combined with the multiple generations of (fairly) good prenatal and childhood nutrition, children are physically maturing faster than ever.  simultaneously, as our life expectancy gets longer and longer, those children have longer to be children before their brains point out that time is running out and they should be adults. it's widely accepted that juliet in romeo and juliet would have been around 13 years old. but in a world where the average life expectancy was 30, she was already approaching middle age. since middle age, now, is 40-50 years of age (if you assume that middle age is the part where you're about halfway through your years), then people don't feel the pressures of impending death until their 30s or 40s. even if they think of death, they can just deny deny deny...  and many of us also have parents who helicopter and don't expect us to be grown-up.  because of this, children stay immature mentally and emotionally longer than ever before.  the part-timers who move in with their parents? they're slackers. and their parents are enabling that behavior. the ones who jump right in already understand that real life is now, it's not later, and they're doing what they have to do. think of it this way: you're going to work your butt off, retire, and die. the only way to avoid this trap is to work hard enough when you're young to retire early enough to enjoy some of life. so the ones who jump right in have the right idea.