RE: What Is It About 20-Somethings?

Personally, I can understand why it is taking so long for this generation of “20-Somethings” to grow up. I have a friend in her twenties who, like those mentioned in the article, graduated college and moved back in to her mother’s house. As of now, she has her degree in English from UC Riverside, but is unemployed and living in the room she grew up in. Her last job had nothing to do with English either. Maybe the 20-Somethings of this generation are lost in a way. Maybe they are trying to find their niche in the world and it is just taking longer than it did in previous years.


I know, for me, I am terrified to grow up. I want to stay as young as possible for as long as possible. My high school English teacher talked to us one day about how after college you really hit the real world. You are faced with bills on top of bills, paying back loans, finding a career, paying taxes, etc. I just wanted to crawl in a hole at that point and never come out. Just the thought of having to face those things in the world may very well cause a panic attack. I wish I could live off of my parents for the rest of my life like a leech. This, of course, cannot happen. Eventually there will come a day where I, like the 20-Somethings, must grow up. I just hope it does not take me too long.

Throughout high school, I feel like many of the students there were in such a hurry to grow up. They wanted to do what they thought was “grown up” or “mature”. These words are subjective. I suppose with this generation, with premarital sex being less taboo, many students at my school did engage in intercourse, but at what cost? High school, and even some junior high, students are so caught up in trying to grow up (sex, drinking, partying, etc) that they lose sight of what it really means to be an adult. They want all the perks of being an adult, without all of the responsibilities.

That is why it is taking so long for people to grow up today. Doing stupid or reckless things are fine when you are young because there is always some sort of safety net to catch you. You can be indecisive about what you want to do with your life and you can lean on your parents. In this way, I think people are staying dependent on parents for longer. It gives us a longer period of time to sort out what we really want out of our lives.