Neverland: A Look At Being Twenty Something
The window opens, a cool breeze billowing over birthday candles and hot cocoa. You’re finally a twentysomething. You’re old enough to vote and to care about world affairs, but just young enough that adults don’t ask you for your opinion on the Benghazi attacks; you’re young, so why would you know about that?
You rent your first apartment with money you scraped from your knuckles and off the street. You make your first trip to IKEA without your parents, and you know that you can call yourself an adult, because only adults buy their own furniture. Your apartment wall is plastered with the smirks and smiles of attractive celebrities that you will never meet, but the eight year old fan kid in you still hopes to touch the trails of their jacket. If you were still eight years old, trailing a celebrity would be endearing, but at twentysomething, you remind yourself that infatuation to that degree is considered stalking, and is frowned upon in most places.
Summer hits, and its tanning on the quad, lattes at the lake, drinks on the porch and late nights with the roommates. Spend too much money on Chinese take out, and remember that eating only junk food worked for Peter Pan, so it must be okay. After all, the adults still think you’re just a kid. Indulge in a massage one too many times, and decide whether the new pair of heels is worth the late rent. Call your mother and remind yourself that she was twentysomething once. Call your father, and forget that you’re supposed to be an adult. Call your sister, and act like a child of the Lost Boys, because the fun never ends when you’re young.
Wake up at 7:50 for an 8am class. Don’t bother getting dressed; professors should be impressed that you’re up that early. Call your significant other, and plan a picnic when you should be at your sociology class. Make nutella sandwiches and eat them everyday until you finally get a cookbook. But don’t worry; cookbooks are for adults and adulthood is still a lifetime away. Wendy Darling didn’t cook for herself, and she turned out fine, didn’t she?
Realize that all you’ve eaten in the last week was ramen and cookie dough. Vow to start going to the gym. Actually go to the gym. Pick up a newspaper on your way to class and learn what’s going on in the world. Taste your coffee black before you decide to add ten sugars. Learn to balance a checkbook. Keep your receipts and track how much you’re spending at the bar. Learn the lights from the darks of the laundry. Learn the difference between a nut and a bolt, and the difference between morning and midnight. Decide what you believe. Find your passion. Drop Chemistry so you can learn Glassblowing. Switch out math for a theatre class. Take physics and writing. Learn to budget time and money. Look for a certain kind of light. Learn to tell what shadows to peel. Decide for yourself if fairies exist. Fly a plane. Learn to fly for real. You’ve got time to learn. You’re only twentysomething, and you have plenty of time to be a grown up.
You’ll never live today again. You’ll never be in this moment again. TwentySomething is full of maybes, ifs, and never-again’s. You never know what will happen.
That’s why its called Neverland.