The only time in your life that is as awkward as puberty would have to be your twenties. For starters, the weird effects of puberty lasts for 2-3 years max. Per definition, your twenties last 10 grueling years. I will break these complex periods down in 2 year increments. It should also be noted that at the time of writing this I am 26 years old, so all periods beyond that are based off observation rather than experience. Henceforth!
20-22.
Perhaps one of the strangest times of your twenties. During this two year period you will no longer be a teenager, so a sense of responsibility is expected from you over night, even though you are still very much a dip shit child. Just when you start feeling comfortable not being a teenager anymore, you turn 21. This is a glorious nightmare. You can now legally go to the bar and get embarrassingly drunk in public, which is awesome. Although you are legal, you are still very much considered the kid at the bar. Fortunately, you are probably in college and the establishments you frequent are very well accustomed to this behavior. You will spend the remainder of this year (and your money) at rat hole bars in your college town. When you turn 22 (if you are a good student) you will be approaching college graduation. Where did the time go? Two short years ago you were getting accustomed to adult non-teen life, and now you are about to be thrown to the corporate wolves (hopefully). You graduate and realize the chances of finding a job that your degree applies to only happens to a very select few lucky individuals. You end up taking a bullshit low paying job in hopes to build your resume (and to start paying off those massive student loans).
23-25.
If you are lucky, you at some point in this range started what would be considered a career rather than a job. If so, you are in the "prove yourself" stage. You are at the bottom of the totem pole, and probably report to multiple bosses/managers. Even seasoned cynical co-workers act like they are your boss. You arrive earlier and stay later than most of your co-workers with little to no reward. You didn't imagine this life for yourself during college, but you still believe that if you put in your time, it will pay off. On the personal side a slew of things are going on. Several of your friends are still in college, so you are slowly losing touch with them. They can't understand that you don't go out on Tuesdays anymore for $1 Miller High Life night, and they can't understand why you enjoy going to happy hour at a place that requires a collar. Several of your other friends are getting married. These friends will only put up with your shenanigans for so long, and will soon try and convince themselves that they should only be hanging out with other married couples, doing lame stereotypical married things. Your search for friends within your subset of reality is becoming very real.
25-27.
If you haven't landed the job you spent a lifetime's worth of money on education for, you are probably freaking out and becoming very discouraged at this point. If you are still single, you are doubting whether it's going to happen for you, and start breaking down your life trying to figure out what is wrong. You notice that your friend set is DRASTICALLY different than it was just a mere 3-4 years ago, although this is usually a good thing for the most part. It's not about who is in your life that is rattling, it's how quickly and efficiently change happens without your consent. You come to the realization that so many things are out of your control. You typically only see your married/couple friends at major events like weddings/birthday parties. When you do get rare time with your friends away from their spouse, it's usually in a very controlled environment with a time constraint in place (golf). Vacations are no longer relaxing and fly by the seat of your pants. They are planned, structured, and usually exhausting to maximize the amount of things you can see/do. You miss the Vegas trip with your friends in which the only planning that took place was setting up rendezvous points at Club Rehab.
28-30.
If you aren't married or in a serious relationship, you are a severe minority at this point. You may have achieved great success financially, but people seem to only notice that you are single. You have probably waded through so many bullshit dates and shady friends by now that you are actually pretty content with your life and the people that have survived your friend set. You seek connection but probably aren't actively pursuing it because you actually understand reality now. When you do meet or someone attempts to set you up with someone, they usually possess one or multiple things you consider to be a "deal breaker" (baggage with ex, kids, reputation, no goals, etc.) Your hobbies now are polar opposite than the things you enjoyed doing at the beginning of your twenties. When 20-25 year olds do something that irritates you, you refer to them as kids. The realization that you are getting old is very real.
Summary.
I firmly believe your twenties can be one of, if not the best time of your life. The take away here is that you need to be adaptable and comfortable with change. This is the one time in your life that from year to year major changes can occur and if you aren't prepared for them, they can be very taxing on you mentally.
Ty Virden
www.suitandty.org
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