help: life is funky

No one ever tells you that your 20's are just as gut-wrenching and torcherous as they are fun.

I could've sworn that growing up, the 20's seemed like ones' glory years. I always thought it was the 'prime' of life... it's when everyone looks their best, does the most, and...da.da.daaaaa....GETS MARRIED.

It was the predictability of life laid out for me that created my first rebellious move..a literal move.. to LA. Somehow, despite the underlying dream behind my departure to Hollywood, I figured i'd also conveniently escape the monotony of what, inevitably, my family was expecting from me.

After all, isn't it a little too coincidental that EVERYONE finds their spouse at that golden age of 20-something..and the natural course is kids at 30, family at 40, retirement by default after that..

I think that some of that actual trend is the biological clock's fault. We find what we need to procreate. when we can.

Contemporary society has a lot of exceptions. Exceptions, now, are not only acceptable, but prevalent. People are waiting. Women are choosing education, and following thier own paths. Men are off the hook a bit, with the blossoming concept of dual-income.

Women are having babies well into their 40's, and my friend D's favorite show, Cougar Town brilliantly argues 40 is the new 20.

So the 20's can be lived a bit less pressured, right?

Hard to say.

When you're in your 20's there's so much going on, and not an abundance of direction..which is what we're raised to expect. Suddenly, if you're going at a normal rate of speed, at the mere age of 23, you're out of an educational structure that has done the dancing for you. So..you're free, and it;s time to rush into the structure of a job. What happens when you free float...

i suppose something like what's happened to me.

Lots and Lots of loose ends!

But here we are, in our 20's, with the damn clock ticking, horomones gushing, (especially with girls on birth control) and hunger for money, success, and survival. The added dimension, which i'm not sure everyone can even see- is the unique threshold of enlightenment and spiritual awareness that people are finding whether they like it or not, can't avoid..

It's a collison of many things; this day in age. And this age .

So, ya, it's hard to say.

I have many friends who wonder why they're still single at 28, as the biological clock tick-tocks away.

On my 28th birthday, a guy at work congratulated me on the official commencement of my eggs shriveling.

And there are days, i'm afraid, I never escaped at all.