Twenty Something (Something More)

I am, what is commonly referred to as being, in my mid twenties. This means I am no longer young enough to bare the scars of teenage angst and not yet old enough to have a crisis (of the mid-life variety). Twenty something is a bit like limbo, if limbo was an age, which would be very existential wouldn’t it.

I was talking to my friend the other evening after a particularly gruelling session at the gym. We were talking about many matters of interest to us twenty something’s; matters of the heart, matters of the soul and things which didn’t matter at all. It was a conversation I’d become used to living with someone my age but something my friend said struck a chord. She mentioned how much pressure she’d felt under recently from all angles. She was single, in a job she didn’t particularly enjoy, still lived with her parents and had no money. If that’s not ticking the boxes in the suicide booth I don’t know what is.

Anyway, after much speculation, agitation and regurgitation (we’d had a lot of pizza you see), we came to the common idea that our generation, in today’s modern climate, have so much more over their lives than anyone did (I’m talking generally here) even ten years ago. The pressure has ramped up, the heat has soared and the need to be seen as a contributing member of society has never been so great.

I suppose, thinking about it, being a twenty something has improved. I mean OK, we have the stress, strife, trouble and pressure of a thirty something or even a forty something, but isn’t that a good thing? Doesn’t that mean we have grasped the reigns of existence and decided to push on for bigger, greater things? OK, not everyone will share my optimism (indeed very few ever do, bar the occasional mental passing me in the street who shares my enthusiasm, only with a focus on lamp posts or the like) but I think it’s a valid attitude to have to take us into a new decade. We are, after all, the generation who witnessed the birth of the internet and took ownership over the technical revolution. We are the generation who grew up with Prince William. We are the people who saw our parents in shoulder pads and celebrated the millennium with genuine lucidity. We are a very lucky lot you know.

When I turned twenty I thought my youth was over. And it was. It gave way to the modern adulthood. My teenage self died and I regenerated into a young man without acne and a more confident stance. I began to suit fitted jackets and felt I could now attract potential mates (which I hasten to add, I did). I discovered who I was and where I was going. I was given a map that I could navigate at last. I was in control!

I look back to the kid I was and remember what he thought of growing up. I now share his enthusiasm for what I’ll be in the future, whatever that may be. Remember we aren't just a twenty something, we're far, far more.