It’s weird to think that I’ll go to bed tonight being myself and wake up to a definitional part of myself being different without my consent. It’s not just that my answer to “How old are you?” will be different (even though that’s weird in and of itself). Tomorrow, I am legally an adult. Sure, functionally, not much will have changed. I won’t look older or sound older. I probably won’t feel any different. But fundamentally, something is different. For those of you in Spanish, one of my “ser” states will have changed. A state of being. A definition. That seems strange to me.
Tomorrow, I will be adult Chloe, with the superhuman abilities to buy cigarettes (nope), buy lotto tickets (yes), and vote (eventually). And my identity will never again be what it is for the next thirty-eight minutes. Arbitrary? Maybe. But strange just the same.