When will I grow up?

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the differentiation between girls and women, boys and men. I'm nearly 27 and yet I feel strange referring to myself as a woman. I also feel oddly connected to Britney Spears when she sings, "I'm not a girl, not yet a woman."

Because this has been on my mind so much, it's also made its way into conversations. I asked Laura, who's three years older than me, "When do you think a boy becomes a man?" Her response: a boy becomes a man when he has a child and takes responsibility for it (I'm assuming she believes in the same transformation point for females). I asked a 31-year-old guy whether he thought he was a man. He looked at me like I was crazy and said something similar to, "Are you really asking a 31-year-old Mexican (who is full of machismo) if he thinks he is a man?" Obviously, the answer was yes.

So, when will I feel like a woman? I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, here's something similar I wrote back in September 2004.