自己支付旅行费用，自己将喜欢的宠物养大，自己支付自己的医疗费用，这三个标志在制图师特里什加拉格尔看来才是真正意义上成年的标志，她对于成年的解读是否和你理解的是一样的呢？而她的理解我想也代表了美国社会对成年的一种理解，而在中国，成年这个词大家对它的理解可能还仅仅在年龄数字上而已。

　合肥新航道英语口语课堂带你走进制图师特里什加拉格尔的生活，去感受她对于成年的理解，是否会给带你一些不一样的内心触动呢？

   
    Twenty-seven-year-old Trish Gallagher is very clear about the milestones that made her think, 'Finally, I'm an adult.' One was paying for her first solo vacation in 2010 to visit a college friend in San Francisco. Another was buying her first dog, a husky-hound puppy, at a shelter and raising him to age 4?, says the Fairbanks, Alaska, cartographer. The third: 'Getting kicked off her parents' insurance into the shark-infested waters' of managing her own medical bills.
   
    Nowhere on her radar screen are such traditional rites of passage as buying a house or getting married─or even purchasing her own cellphone plan. For her generation, Ms. Gallagher says, 'the milestones are very individualistic.'
   
    As the oldest members of the Millennial generation enter their early 30s, psychologists and market researchers are identifying the new and distinctive ways this group, the largest demographic cohort in U.S. history, defines adulthood. Many remain closer to their parents than past generations, still vacationing together, shopping together and even wearing the same clothing brands. But Millennials, usually defined as born between 1981 and the early 2000s, are less likely than ever to follow past generations' stair-step path to marriage, a house and kids.
   
    Instead, topping their list of adult milestones are more amorphous goals such as 'accepting responsibility for yourself' and 'making your own decisions' about, say, what car to buy or whether to take a job in a different city, says Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a research professor of psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. Another top priority is achieving financial independence, according to a 2012 Clark University poll of 1,029 young adults ages 18 to 29, led by Dr. Arnett.
   
    For some Millennials, this is different than failing to launch. Living independently of their parents is a high priority for 74% of young adults in the Clark University study, and 70% of them have attained that goal. Many take a zigzag path to independence─moving in, out and back in with their parents, or jumping among different jobs, projects, training programs or travel.
   
    Taking time to explore those options often helps Millennials fashion a sense of identity, says Dan McAdams, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. 'People face a dizzying array of choices regarding the kinds of lives they might lead, and no clear consensus on exactly what a good life should be,' Dr. McAdams says.
   
    Of course, the sluggish job market and heavy student-debt loads play a role in postponing home-buying and starting a family. Then there is the fact that young adults keep waiting to get married, a milestone that often sparks more traditional behaviors. Since 1990, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median age at first marriage has risen from 23 to 26 for women, and from 26 to 28 for men.
   
    But even after marriage, today's 20-somethings continue to behave differently than past generations. Married Millennials are almost as likely as singles to drop everything at a moment's notice to take an exciting trip, says Jeff Fromm, executive vice president of the Kansas City, Mo.-based ad agency Barkley and co-author of a forthcoming book about marketing to Millennials. They have a 'huge thirst' for travel and adventure, he says, which doesn't go away after they marry. Only after they have children do most young adults settle down a bit to nest, Mr. Fromm says.
   
    As for Ms. Gallagher, who shares an apartment in Fairbanks with her longtime boyfriend, settling down in the traditional real-estate sense won't happen any time soon. She says buying something in her city's high-price home market is out of reach─a view echoed by many Millennials who say the old notion of a 'starter home' is history. 'You'd have to commit to staying in a house for several years to break even,' she says. 'I can't guarantee that I will be here that long.'
   
    Neither is she rushing to peel off from her family's cellphone plan, which she shares with her mother Bonnie, 61, of Niwot, Colo., and two grown siblings. While each can afford their own plans─and pays their own share─having a joint account is not only cheaper, it helps the family feel connected, says Bonnie Gallagher, a retired teacher.
   
    More important than phone independence, her daughter says, is paying off her $12,000 in student loans─she only has $900 remaining. Another marker of maturity she points to: the care of her 64-pound dog Aedan. She trained him in agility maneuvers and he just completed his first competition. She also participates in a Scandinavian sport called 'skijoring,' cross-country skiing while Aedan wears a harness and pulls her along. 'I'm like the dog soccer mom. I have dedicated dog activities,' Ms. Gallagher says.
   
    When it comes to navigating a tough job market, many young adults count 'their first career─not the first job,' as a milestone, says Christine Barton, a partner at Boston Consulting Group who co-wrote several studies on Millennials. The difference between the two is that having a career marks 'the first time there is a sense, or a vision of oneself in the job beyond the six-month to one-year time frame,' she says.
   
    Twenty-five-year-old Katie Decker of Houston sees carving out a career as her most important milestone. After sketching jewelry designs in the margins of her textbooks while studying finance at Texas A&M University, she began winning admission to juried design shows around the time she graduated in 2010, and soon launched her own jewelry-design company. Now, she attends trade shows and sells her work in 15 retail stores in several states.
   
    Adulthood means 'gaining independence and doing what you love,' she says. 'It's a defining experience to see the jewelry come to life, and to have customers who want to buy it and wear it,' she says.
   
    But like many Millennials, Ms. Decker still keeps close parental ties. She and her mother Liz, 53, have long been shopping buddies, and sometimes wear the same designers. They go on vacations together, too, including a one-week driving tour of France two years ago. These days, Liz, a former commercial real-estate broker, helps out with sales and marketing for the jewelry business.
   
    Ms. Decker says she's closing in on a second big milestone: taking financial responsibility for herself. That means avoiding major purchases and continuing to drive her 2004 Toyota 4Runner so she can plow her growing profits back into her business.
   
    Within a few months, Ms. Decker says, she will have enough money saved to move into an apartment of her own.
   
    27岁的特里什加拉格尔(Trish Gallaghe)是阿拉斯加费尔班克斯(Fairbanks)的一名制图师，她非常明确是什么让她认为“我终于是一个成年人了”。她说，一个标志是2010年她次独自在假期去拜访旧金山的一个大学好友，并自己支付旅行费用。另一个标志是在一家宠物收容所买下她的只狗──一只小哈士奇猎犬，并将它养大，现在已有四岁半了。第三个标志是：“与父母的医保计划脱钩”，自己应对自己的医疗费用。
   
    Gallagher Family特里什?加拉格尔买房子或结婚这样的传统成人仪式是不在她考虑范围之内的──甚至也不包括自己购买手机套餐。加拉格尔说，对于她这代人来说，“这种标志是非常个人化的”。
   
    千禧世代中最年长的一批人如今已经30岁出头，心理学家和市场研究人员发现，这一美国历史上人口最多的群体定义成年有他们独特的新方法。比起过去年代的人，他们中许多人与父母保持着更亲近的关系，他们仍然与父母一起度假、购物、甚至穿同样的服装品牌。但千禧世代──通常被定义为在1981年至2000年代初出生的人──沿袭以前年代的人结婚、买房、生孩子的阶梯式人生道路的可能性更低。
   
    马萨诸塞州伍斯特(Worcester)克拉克大学(Clark University)的心理学研究教授杰弗里?詹森?阿内特(Jeffrey Jensen Arnett)说，在他们所列举的成人标志中，排在前面的是更无定式的目标，例如，在关于买什么车或是否接受在另一个城市的工作等问题上“自己承担责任”和“自己做出决定”。根据克拉克大学2012年对1,029名18岁至29年的青年进行的一项由阿内特博士主持的调查，另一个重要标志是实现经济独立。
   
    对于某些千禧世代来说，成年就意味着不能赖在家里。在克拉克大学的研究中，74%的青年将离开父母独立生活作为成年的重要标志，其中70%的人已经实现了这一目标。许多人的独立之路颇为曲折──搬回来与父母同住、搬出去、再搬回来，或者从事不同的工作、项目，参加各种培训课程和旅行。
   
    伊利诺伊州埃文斯顿(Evanston)西北大学(Northwestern University)的心理学教授丹?麦克亚当斯(Dan McAdams)说，花时间研究这些选择通常有助于千禧世代形成身份定位。麦克亚当斯博士说：“他们面临着令人眼花缭乱的生活方式选择，对什么是幸福生活没有明确共识。”
   
    当然，低迷的就业市场和沉重的学生贷款负担是导致年轻人延迟买房和组建家庭的一个因素。事实是，很多年轻人迟迟不结婚，而结婚通常是引发更多传统成年行为的一个成年标志。根据美国人口普查局(U.S. Census Bureau)的统计，1990年以来，女性的初婚年龄中值已经从23岁升至26岁，而男性的初婚年龄中值已经从26岁升至28岁。
   
    但即使在婚后，现在20来岁的年轻人的行为仍然与过去年代的人不同。密苏里州堪萨斯城(Kansas City)Barkley广告公司的执行副总裁杰夫?弗罗姆(Jeff Fromm)说，婚后的千禧世代几乎和单身族一样，会随时放下一切，进行一次激动人心的旅行。弗罗姆参与撰写的一本关于如何向千禧世代营销的书籍即将出版。弗罗姆说，他们有进行旅行和探险的“巨大渴望”，这不会在他们婚后消失。只有在他们有孩子后，多数年轻人才会稍微安定一些。
   
    加拉格尔和交往已久的男友在费尔班克斯共住一间公寓，短期内她还不会有传统意识的安家的打算。她说，在她所在的高房价城市买房是遥不可及的──这是许多千禧世代共同的观点，他们说，买“起步房”的老观念已成为历史。她说：“那样的话你不得不住在一个房子里好几年，这样才不会亏。我不能保证我会在一个房子里住那么久。”
   
    她也不急于要脱离她家的手机套餐，她和她住在科罗拉多州尼沃特(Niwot)、今年61岁的母亲邦尼(Bonnie)以及两个成年兄弟姊妹共用一个套餐。邦尼?加拉格尔(Bonnie Gallagher)是一位退休教师，她说，尽管每个人都自己买得起套餐──而且现在也是每个人都付自己的那一份钱──但他们拥有一个共同账户不仅更便宜，还有助于让家人感到更亲近。
   
    加拉格尔说，比手机独立更重要的是，还完她12,000美元的学生贷款──她只剩下900美元没还了。她指出的另一个成熟标志是：照看她64磅（合29公斤）重的狗埃丹(Aedan)。她给埃丹进行敏捷度机动性训练，埃丹刚完成了它的次比赛。加拉格尔还参与一种叫“滑雪游戏”的斯堪的纳维亚运动，让埃丹套上辔头拉着她进行越野滑雪。加拉格尔说：“我就像狗狗的‘足球妈妈’。我热衷于各种狗类活动。”
   
    至于在严酷的就业市场上谋职这个问题，参与撰写了多项千禧世代研究的波士顿咨询集团(Boston Consulting Group)合伙人克里斯蒂娜?巴顿(Christine Barton)说，许多年轻人将“他们的份事业──而非份工作”当作成年的标志。她说，两者的区别在于，拥有一份事业标志着“次感到自己拥有了一份突破半年到一年时间范畴的工作”。
   
    Katie Decker凯蒂?德克尔（右）与她的母亲利兹。家住休斯敦、今年25岁的凯蒂?德克尔(Katie Decker)将开创一份事业作为她最重要的成年标志。在德州农工大学(Texas A&M University)学习金融学时，她常在教科书页边上画珠宝设计稿。后来，在她2010年毕业那段时间，她的作品开始入选设计展，很快她就开办了自己的珠宝设计公司。现在，她参加各类贸易展并在分布于好多个州的15家零售店中出售自己的作品。
   
    她说，成年意味着“获得独立并做你喜欢的事”。她说：“看到珠宝有了生命，有顾客想购买并佩戴它，这样的体验就意味着自己成年了。”
   
    但与许多千禧世代一样，德克尔仍然与父母保持着密切关系。她和她53岁的母亲利兹(Liz)是长期的购物伙伴，有时还会穿相同设计的衣服。她们还一起度假，两年前她们一起开车到法国玩了一周。如今，曾经从事商业房地产经纪工作的利兹对德克尔的珠宝业务销售与营销助益良多。
   
    德克尔说，现在她已接近第二个大目标：经济独立。这意味着她不能购买大件商品，并继续开她的2004年款丰田超霸(Toyota 4Runner)，好能将增长的利润回投于企业。
   
    德克尔说，用不了几个月，她就能攒下足够的钱搬进自己的公寓里了。