In the late teens the young adult finally discovers he or she has the power to make decisions. School has been survived, bodies have settled down for the moment and parents can be told where to go if they continue being control freaks. The whole world now beckons. Some will go on to higher education, some will join the work force and others will do nothing. They can now drink legally after several years of binges, they have money for higher quality legal and illegal substances and they can vote, though as political organisations become increasingly similar, they find this right is becoming irrelevant.
For many young people this is a time of disenchantment. They have been looking forward for so long to the end of childhood, but now they are here they feel weighed down by responsibilities and pressures. Get a good job, get a degree or diploma, pick the right career, get an income, work hard, enjoy life, find a partner. It all settles down in a few years, but most end up in jobs or careers they didn’t want after following the line of least resistance. This may not be the life they wanted, but they are becoming so busy socially they do not realise their long term predicament. If society was a legal entity, it could be charged with entrapment.
The young adult is seduced. Buy the best clothes, party as much as possible, travel the world, be seen, buy a car, a home, be successful, look good. Pretty soon the debts are mounting and you are backed into your socio-economic parking place in the world; and there you are meant to stay. You meet a partner in the same situation, your friends split up into those with partners and those without. You suddenly seem to be going to weddings every weekend and before too long you find you are standing where the bride or groom normally stands and hear yourself saying, “I do!” And before the ramifications of this event have died down, you are arriving home with your first offspring and wondering who pressed the fast forward button on your life.
You look down at this drooling, incontinent, smelly blob and say, “That was me five minutes ago. What happened?” Welcome to…
Whaddo I Know? 