I had to laugh reading your post...the older I get, the more the “young adults” look like kids to me too.
Your post is interesting, and bears on how things have changed.
I was looking at my Dad’s records, and he was a 19 year old ensign graduating from a V-12 program in 1945. In less than two years, he was the Post Commander for the local VFW (He was in the Naval Reserve) and when the Korean War came, he made the leap to the Regular Navy and was over in Korea.
How different from our lives were our father’s lives. Granted, I was still in the USN at 21, but man...my dad was off and running. Married my mom a couple of years later...
What bugs me is that the administration buckled.