Is It Really Just a "Twenties" Thing?

Last week, I pointed to a city on Google Maps with my eyes closed, searched for jobs in that city and applied to the first one I saw. Leaving my life up to chance, I would spend the next half an hour applying for a fireplace installation job in Wilmington, North Carolina. Sounds like a sweet gig. Sunday night on my run, I literally did math in my head (it's a miracle this was able to take place) to determine the number of hours it would take me if I were ever to just extend my run a couple thousand miles to the NW. OH, and yesterday, I ordered a book called "Quarter-life Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties" from eBay. (Okay, well that last one is only ridiculous because, if anyone knows me, I will never get through that book- or any book, for that matter. Reading is my least favorite hobby).

Regardless, these are the kinds of things that crazy people twenty-six year olds do. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. We are in the age of the twenty-somethings: those that regurgitate their emotions out over the Internet on a regular basis and the toughest decision they have to make right now is whether they should quit their amazing day job that they are completely spoiled by, and totally lucky to have landed, just so they can back-pack around Europe (or Wilmington, NC) or some shit.

The truth is, no matter how you let loose, or no matter how good of a job you might have, "the twenties" still suck. They should REALLY be called "The stage in your life when everything falls together for a day or two, and then falls apart for what seems like the next 10 years." But if I was "the twenties," I'd beg to differ.

There are PLENTY of people who seem to have their lives together in their twenties. If you call waiting tables to pay for school, getting married, and popping out babies like it's nobody's business having their lives together. But clearly, this isn't the lifestyle I was in search of. I wonder what the minority is in terms of twenty-somethings? Am I a part of the minority? Let's see... Despite the fact that I'm gay (which I'm not sure is the minority or majority, these days), I'm a single woman, with a "career ladder," that owns a house and a car, and on any given day, I teeter on the idea of dropping everything, picking up everything else, and skipping town for a bigger & better place, should there be one. Is this what every other twenty-something without a marriage license and a car seat is thinking, as well? Or maybe what I THINK is a twenties thing, is really just a schizo thing and I'm really just a schizo that happens to be in my twenties.... It could happen.

While I'm the president of "The Twenties Can Suck It" fan club, apparently, I do wonder if I should cut them some slack. I'm getting by just fine with my job, my friends, and having my family around. I have to tell myself that the "twenties" are not to blame for my inability to find a person that has their shit together enough to- not settle down, because I despise that term- but enough to commit to me, or at least not run at the first sight of something amazing. The twenties are also not to blame for my restless soul that would rather travel than work, and what compels me to spend 98% of my time thinking about what I could change in my life instead just living my life the way it is. Lastly, my twenties are not to blame for my lack of "up for anything" friends that will literally go with the flow and never say no to any sort of adventure that I put in their heads. Those adventures are only fun if I have some great people to tag along with me. Friends that also don't mind taking sick leave when they are feeling the best they've ever felt, just to day-drink and be irresponsible while we can, and who don't mind racking up every credit card they have just to road-trip to a sweet ass music festival in a city we've never set foot in. Seriously, I cannot be the only one who wants these things.

All I can hope for is that "the twenties" don't extend into "the thirties" or "the forties." Just like I know plenty of people that have their shit together right now, I know even more people that have their shit together in their thirties. I don't want to discount my twenties, or rush through them by any means. As annoying as they are sometimes, I'm not attempting to wish my life away. I guess running through the immaturity, and confusion, and the "who am I and why I'm here wahhhh" is more like it.

I think by the time I'm 30, I am going to want to go all Stone Cold Steve Austin on my twenty's ass. If my twenties even THINK about creeping into my thirties, they got another thing coming. I would not be okay with that. For someone with such a restless soul, I do like to think that I have a five-year plan. Although, that plan changes on a daily basis...

I'd like to thank my twenties for that.