I was definitely one of those teens. My sole purpose for working as a teenager was to purchase records, metal magazines and concert tickets. I did what a lot of other kids do at that age. I spent most of those years just fucking around. I skipped class, went to parties, stayed out too late and loathed high school.
With our 20's came a lot more freedom, with just a sprinkling of responsibility. Some of us struck out on our own, and learned the hard way why your parents always freaked out about the bills and the necessity of saving at least some money. Then there were those of us who were trying to figure out what we were going to do with our lives after we had partied our education away in college and returned home to mom and dad. I mean, sure - we had responsibility, but we were still young enough to act like we didn't care.
Whatever mistakes we made were nothing more than "learning experiences", right? If we fell down, we just got up, dusted ourselves off and carried on. The only twenty-somethings that had it bad were the schmucks who went insane and got married too young. Face it. Most twenty-somethings have the world by the ass and don’t even realize it.
The 30's are a totally different ball of wax. Responsibility is in mad force, and you can't just shrug it off anymore. You have it coming at you from both sides. On the one end, you have to deal with the shit life is dumping on you while trying to plan for some terrifying future you know you’re not prepared for. On the other end, you feel like you are still paying for all those dumbass mistakes you made in your 20's. It is the age when a great many are parents and likely on a second or third marriage. Many have had some sort of epiphany and decide that it's time to finally go back to school and commit to what he or she wants to be when he or she grows up.
It varies from person to person, of course, but this is all general truth, my friends. I know it is. I know this because I have lived through all those decades. I am just two weeks away from leaving that third decade of so-called living behind. I find myself looking over my shoulder at the hot mess that was my 30’s and then facing forward to stare straight down the barrel of 40.
What happened? Where did it all go? Who the fuck knows? It's crazy. One day I was seventeen then the next I was...well, so NOT seventeen. I don’t know how it happened, but somewhere along the way I have lived what is likely HALF of my life. Now that it's gone, what the hell am I supposed to do now?
