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lauralhI am finally feeling better. I whipped that headache into shape and packed some more, then we had Pies (but no Pints) and then bought shit at Fred Meyer for the new place, and put it there (I inaguarated the toilet) and then went home and packed some more. Also there was a shower in there somewhere. I was beat and wanted to sleep. So I did.
The last dream I remember was some cop taking me on a secret Seattle route to avoid rush-hour traffic on I-5.
Anyway. I've been reading a bunch of stuff about how this generation is afraid to grow up. Whether it's emotional or financial fears. Which is utterly strange to me because a) I grew up in Louisiana and b) I went to Duke. Almost everyone I had a casual acquaintance with in either of these two categories is currently married if not having-been-married-for-years. Of course, I think of expensive private colleges as breeding grounds for upper-class snobs, and back home everyone is still expected to get married in college at the latest. My brother was 22, I mean.
But my closest friends weren't anywhere near marriage or expecting to get married when I graduated, and this seems to still be the case, so I always thought those people who were rushing into adulthood were freaks. On the other hand we did all have good decent jobs and probably could have bought houses if we wanted to. This was before the dot-com economy collapsed on itself, things are different now, but even then the mentality of not wanting "responsibility" was omnipresent. I had enough trouble taking care of a pair of gerbils.
The bride in one of the first post-college weddings I attended later slept with a friend of mine, which further led me to believe that these people weren't rushing to adulthood so much as running away from childhood. Fear of being alone, yadda yadda yadda. It's a lot harder to be alone at 21 than 28.
The last dream I remember was some cop taking me on a secret Seattle route to avoid rush-hour traffic on I-5.
Anyway. I've been reading a bunch of stuff about how this generation is afraid to grow up. Whether it's emotional or financial fears. Which is utterly strange to me because a) I grew up in Louisiana and b) I went to Duke. Almost everyone I had a casual acquaintance with in either of these two categories is currently married if not having-been-married-for-years. Of course, I think of expensive private colleges as breeding grounds for upper-class snobs, and back home everyone is still expected to get married in college at the latest. My brother was 22, I mean.
But my closest friends weren't anywhere near marriage or expecting to get married when I graduated, and this seems to still be the case, so I always thought those people who were rushing into adulthood were freaks. On the other hand we did all have good decent jobs and probably could have bought houses if we wanted to. This was before the dot-com economy collapsed on itself, things are different now, but even then the mentality of not wanting "responsibility" was omnipresent. I had enough trouble taking care of a pair of gerbils.
The bride in one of the first post-college weddings I attended later slept with a friend of mine, which further led me to believe that these people weren't rushing to adulthood so much as running away from childhood. Fear of being alone, yadda yadda yadda. It's a lot harder to be alone at 21 than 28.
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 05:11 pm (UTC)Further proof that this country is just too damned big. I can't even imagine living in that kind of world, and we're both represented by the same President.
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Date: 2005-01-28 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 05:46 pm (UTC)Where I come from, expensive private colleges aren't breeding grounds for upper-class snobs: they're the path to career success (maybe I'm an upper class snob).
But getting married in college? My parents didn't meet until after college, and didn't get married until they were 27. That kind of behavior would be viewed queerly where I grew up (and would be "freakish hick lovin'" in Boston).
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Date: 2005-01-28 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 05:59 pm (UTC)Was there not much dating at Louisiana colleges?
That strikes me as nothing so much as a darkly comic game of Musical Chairs - whoever you end up with senior year (which is as much a function of time and chance as anything), that's who you're stuck with!
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Date: 2005-01-28 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 05:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 06:00 pm (UTC)I can't speak for my town as a whole, just my peer group: I graduated from a prestigious private high school to a well-considered private college.
Everyone in my high school went to some college, even if just a tech school, a community college or the Academy. I'd say at least one in ten transferred or dropped out after a year.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 08:26 pm (UTC)