Among my favorite pastimes is perusing the Internet, reading blogs by fellow semimelancholy young people. As a veteran of life critique on the Web, my
appreciation of fellow digital wordsmiths cannot be underestimated.
Lately, I’ve been reading one particular young lady’s semiweekly posts. Out of respect to her privacy, I won’t divulge the site (which is a shame, as her stuff is blisteringly good), but I will say that the majority of her subject matter stems from her Machiavellian dysfunctional relationships.
Overall, her analysis of her experiences often pivots on intense self-criticism, though she can dish it outward with the best of the boys of summer. Her words drip with an ancient “yeah, I’ve been here before” that simply cannot be faked. After reading her posts, I cannot escape the feeling this girl most likely has a nude woman tattooed somewhere on her body.
But in the end, despite her vulgarly elegant turns-of-phrase, she is yet another young person trying to find her way through the vicissitudes of romantic entanglement. She is, like so many of us, growing up. Some may be more articulate or more perceptive, but at the core, we’re all going through the same damn thing.
Hell, young adulthood is a messy business.
A coworker once remarked to me that he wanted to skip his 20s, wake up tomorrow and be 30. Then, his argument was, he’d already have a steady career, a nice house and a nice family; the ambiguities and uncertainties of youth would be things of an unlived past.
At first, this sounded tempting. To skip the rest of college, low-paying entry-level jobs and the numerous rejection letters I’d get from publishers — not to mention a few clunker two-to-three-year relationships — would be quite a proposition to consider. That’s a considerable headache to fast-forward through.
But if the Adam Sandler film “Click” has taught us anything, it’s that the best aspects of life are in the details; it’s going through the good and the bad to find a middle ground, the contentment that is the hallmark of maturity. As the saying goes, life is a process, not a goal.
This is what makes my Internet perusing so engaging. Reading the words of young people, especially the more bold and articulate among us, heartens me. While I don’t encourage her relationship choices, I certainly champion Nude Tattoo Girl’s willingness to kick the s--t out of young adulthood. She unabashedly lives her life, gaining experience with time and patience.
So, between the two choices, grow up with gusto or fast-forward to less chaotic futures, I’m going to go with the former. Sure, the luxurious security of later years will be nice, but I don’t feel as though I’ve earned it yet. I’m not sure I’d appreciate serenity if it was simply handed to me tomorrow morning.
Essentially, we’re all trying to figure out who we are, where we’ve been and where we’re going. We may have common experiences, but we have our own distinct voices. How we answer those questions — in our own words — really defines who we are as individuals.
To skip young adulthood isn’t just fast-forwarding through various experiences; it would be missing out on a very important part of being human.
Alex is one of the boys of summer, and can be reached at alexander.petrusek@asu.edu.
