Post Teen Crisis

POST-TEEN CRISIS
Stine Kolbeinsen

What is it about your early twenties, or that entire decade for that matter, that seemingly only function as a way of screwing you up? You survived puberty—go you! Now, the only logical thing for you to do is to educate yourself and get a job. It sure sounds easy enough, but there are obstacles along this path.
         
In my personal opinion, however biased and empirical it may be, I do think most people have experienced, or are experiencing, some form of mild depression at some point or stage in their lives. Apparently, this point or stage in ones life seems to coincide with the years between the ages of 20 and 30 for most; and perhaps even more so in the first half of this decade. This happened for me as well. In fact, it’s happening right now. I suspect this depression has a lot to do with uncertainty towards the future, and what the future holds. Questions about choices you make seem to surface with increased frequency during this period, you constantly doubt yourself, and that which you are doing at the time, and you look for some sort of constant to keep you focused. Questioning and doubting is a good thing, I think. It’s like having a continuing reality-check churning away, making sure you don’t screw up too bad. Even so, the questions may become a source for frustration after a while. “Did I make the right choice? Am I studying the right thing? Is there a future in this at all? Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life?” and so on. These questions are, in a sense, inevitable. You’re an adult now; you have to make a life for yourself.

Society wants us to pop up like some Instant Adult once we hit twenty, all mature and in control, heading somewhere in life. Here’s a newsflash for society: Most of us are not like that. At all. Granted, we do have more responsibility, and should start making a life for ourselves when we are old enough to vote. However, most of us would like to stay a little childish, at least once in a while, a little longer, and not just wake up one day and forget all the things that we used for fun only two or three years earlier. So what if your pre-law twenty-something student-offspring kicks back with his or her Xbox sometimes? Him or her having a videogame to play does not make him or her any less useable at a prestigious law-firm some day. It only suggests that he or she wants to keep their minds young longer; to savor the so-called childish behavior, and keep the memories while being able to kick back and relax amidst the worst of finals and studying. He or she wants to play a little, let’s let them. After all, it is highly likely that you, the parents, sparked their interest in video games by purchasing such and giving it to them when they were kids.

I don’t think you can really expect a twenty-something to be in total and utter control of every single aspect of their life. I mean, let’s be honest here, the average twenty-something student might not even know for certain what he or she wants to do for a living. Future careers aside, the average twenty-something student have enough to think about already, let’s not push them too hard just yet. Give them a little time to get adjusted in having to pay the rent, bills, food, clothing, and textbooks for school, etc. It does take a wee while to get into the swing of these things, for the majority of us anyway. On the other hand, there are twenty-something people out there who do have control over most aspects of their lives already, and who are conforming to the standards of what is an adult in a given society.

How grown-up are grown-ups anyway?