What it means to be 16 around the world

McKay Lewis
A4 English
Being 16 around the world
For this paper we have been asked to write about being a sixteen year old around the world and we are supposed to write about things that are universally true. This is hard because it is different to be sixteen like everywhere you go around the world, especially when you are comparing Utah to places around the world.
Some of the things that I thought would be universally true about being sixteen but ended up being not true was I thought that every where around the world you are weird if you are already drinking and smoking at age sixteen. But there was that one country I think it was Portugal the guy said that the start drinking at like age 14.
One thing that is mostly true where ever you go is age 16 is about the time where you start taking care of yourself and you get your own car and you drive yourself around and stuff like that. Of course there were a few exceptions with like the class from New York, but even they start like riding around on buses, subways, taxies and things like that. But this is due to the fact that New York is such a populated city that there really is no way to have a car.
Another thing that is pretty much true around the world is every were you go the people start dating around 16 because some kids might kind of start dating a little earlier but sixteen is like the nonofficial official dating age. The other thing about dating around the world that is similar is the types of things people do on dates, because kids just want to have fun so they will go watch movies or go to the mall or stuff like that. Last week I tried to get in touch with my inner red neck so me and a bunch of my friends went on “date night” and we went horseback riding. I would not consider myself as a cow boy but I live in Spanish fork Utah I know how to ride a horse so it ended up being a party, and the girl that I took loved it to.
We really did not talk to any real 3rd world countries or if we did I must not have been there so every country we talked to schooling was a big deal. They had different names for their school like instead of elementary school I think that they called it primary but it is pretty much the same thing just with a different name. and everywhere we talked to seemed like the same deal you went to about 12 grades and then you went to university or like college and then you just went on with your life. But I am pretty sure if we would have talked to some crazy 3rd world country schooling would not have been nearly as important.
The one question I wish that I would have asked during the interviews was I wish that I would have asked about the sports that people play and stuff like that because I love sports and it would have been cool to hear about the sports around the world.

McKay Lewis
English B4
05/05/11
Dating and marriage in my culture
Well I have only been 16 years old for like 20 days so I’m still just new to the whole dating thing. This is because I am LDS (also known as Mormon) and the LDS church leaders tell us not to date until we are sixteen. It’s not like they think it is the ultimate sin and if you date before the age of 16 then you will be thrust down to hell. They just advise us not to date to young because there is no need. A lot of people in Utah are Mormon and a lot of them follow this advice. And a lot of kids will basically just go “hang out with their friends” which ends up being equivalent to a “date”.
I know I probable sound like a little goody good Mormon boy but reading what I just read makes me want to slap myself. I won’t lie I have gone to a movie to hang out with my friend’s before. It wasn’t like we started making out we barley even talked the whole time it was really weird so I just waited until I was sixteen to go on a real date.
My first real date ever was prom. I am only a sophomore so were I am from it is really weird to go to prom as a sophomore. But at my school it is so small the want all the people that can go to go. To make matters worse I went to prom with a senior who what I call pretty good looking if you know what I mean. But it was not weird that she was a senior it was wired the she is friends with my senior brother. But it was a party and I had fun.
As for marriage in my culture the guys will usually go on a LDS mission at age 19 and get home at age 21 then some guys will get married quickly after they get home and some will wait a while. As for the women of my culture they will usually get married around like their early 20’s. I don’t pay to much attention to this because this is all like six years away for me.