Monday, January 28, 2008

Growing Up, Moving On

Has it really come to this? I suppose that eventually I would have wandered over this way, and it seems after crossing over into the 22 year old mark I felt it necessary to move on and grow up just a little bit more.
It seems after so many years, I've abandoned what helped me through my torturous teen years. And part of me still clings to my angsty xanga of old. Maybe it's the familiarity of posting pictures and rambling about events or dramas. But I think now is the time to say goodbye.
Why now? In all honesty? Simply because 22 kind of sucked. I felt like I needed a milestone or something to validate another year of stepping closer to death. 21 is a major deal in American culture. Legally you can drink now, you can gamble, and buy a hand gun (you can by a rifle at 18). And upon talking with my friends about my 22nd birthday, we began to realize that 22 is a strange celebration. When you're 21 it's almost a right of passage to get trashed. It is as if intoxication validates your very existence for 21 years on this earth. But 22, if you're getting wasted it just seems immature. Yes, fine, 22 year olds aren't that much more mature than 21 year olds, or depending on the person, 12 year olds for that matter. However 21 seems to be the last mile marker before you start wishing your birthday would go by unnoticed.
Just think, after 21 what do you have to look forward to? Well at 25 you can rent a car. 30 you can start complaining even more so about getting old. 40 you can have a midlife crisis. 50 you can start telling kids, "when I was your age, I used to walk up hill, both ways, in the rain 5 miles to and from school, EVERYDAY." At 60 you can look forward to retirement. And at 70...well I'm not sure, but that seems to be another big one. And how many "big" birthdays did we celebrate before reaching 21?
1st birthday, that is in it self a major thing. 2nd birthday, you've now crossed into your "terrible twos." 5th birthday, you can start going to school. 10th, you're now in your "double digits." 13th, technically you're a teen. 16th, this one seems to be bigger to girls than guys. 18th, you're officially an "adult." You can now buy cigarettes and lotto tickets. 20 you're no longer a teen.
All this to say what? 22 was not as eventful as I thought it would be. I'm honestly not sure what I thought it would be like, but I felt like this year was the year for me to start seriously making advances toward the mundane life of adulthood. It seems that when you're younger you can't wait to grow up, but when you reach "grown up" age you just wish to be young again.
So as I head off on my journey to "adulthood" I figured I'd invite you all to come along for the ride. Welcome to A Day in the Life...