I am 18 years old.

My mother deemed me old enough to marry when I turned 16.

She does not, however, think I'm mature enough to go out with my friends. Even though they're all girls!

(God forbid I should speak to a boy unless absolutely necessary.)

"18 is an emotionally-unstable age," she said as she folded my dad's shirt into a neat square. "It's very easy to make wrong choices."

Right, because getting married at 16 to a guy 8 years older is a right choice.

Her too-young-to-go-out-with-friends-but-old-enough-to marry policy confuses (and frustrates) me to no end, and I'm constantly worrying whether I am classified as young or old or somewhere in between and why she can't just decide.

Maybe it's because I haven't.