I got married at 21 to a girl I'd been dating for 6 years. We moved off to our own rented place a year before that when we started college. At that point we wer

I got married at 21 to a girl I'd been dating for 6 years. We moved off to our own rented place a year before that when we started college. At that point we were supposed to be adults but a lot of the time it just felt like we were playing house. We constantly had bills coming due that we couldn't pay, we struggled to eat, and I even sold my own vehicle at a $9,000 loss once to pay half of our over-due rent. It was a nightmare that lasted about...4 years...but things slowly got better. We each graduated with our B.A.s (barely) and went on to complete Master's degrees with high marks (her a 4. 0 and me a 3.9) and each with glowing recommendations from our professors and colleagues. Along the way we have made horrible mistakes, learned tons of really hard lessons, and become better people for it. I don't know if I can pinpoint any specific time that we "became adults." But I know that we are each closer now than we were when we first got married. But from conversations with our families, our story isn't all that different from my parents or hers, or our grandparents. The main difference is that our families had the ability to help us through the darkest times, where as their families did not. And I think that is one reason that it may seem like the "age of adulthood" has become extended: people usually adapt pretty well to their situations. So, when my grandfather was married at 19 and he had to feed his family he didn't have anyone to count on for help. I knew I could always ask for help if I needed to (although it made me hate myself when I did). So, it took longer to become independent because I wasn't forced to do so by my situation. Not sure if that is normal for most people, but it's how it was for us.