WARNING TO ALL YOUNG ADULTS!

By Life & Times guest blogger Tony Taylor

You will wake up one day, probably between 31-33 and ask yourself "what happened to my life"? Throughout my 20s, I found myself well able to be gainfully employed, volunteer a few evenings a week at a church, socialize with friends almost every night, play my guitar, and watch reruns of Cheers and Night Court ad nausaum. Today, I find myself working around 70 hours a week, spending my free time reading research for work or studying for NASD exams. My social life has been reduced to clients and coworkers. I have to employ a cleaning lady to come to apartment once a week, I have all my laundry sent out, and I have not had a home cooked meal in 6 weeks. Now, part of this is due to my job, part is just due to the fact that I've been in New York for 6 weeks and that's just the way things are done here.
At the end of the day though, this whole issue of lacking free time is something that I know is plaguing thirty-somethings nationwide in all career types. Be it constraints of a new family or work, I think all of us that were once labeled "Gen-X" are now echoing those famous words of Ray Davies, "Where Have All The Good Times Gone?" In the last year I cannot tell you how many cds, books and dvds I have purchased on Amazon.com that I still have not even opened. (Amazon.com is an addiction I think economically eclipses that of heroine, crystal meth, and cocaine per capita quite easily for people our age). Timothy Leary once said "Tune In, Tune out, and Drop Out." Reject society, Reject the materialism. Well, people did that for a while, enjoyed it, relaxed, grew their hair, but then they realized how dreadful life was without money, got their act together, got jobs or started businesses and now all live in subdivisions, have two cars, play golf, and listen to adult contemporary radio. I think sometimes about dropping out, but I love material things!
I guess my point is this, am I just having growing pains with adulthood? Am I just having the same pangs of maturity that our parents once fealt? Or do I need to re-examine my life and what is truly important. I started this piece as a warning to young adults and will end it that way as well. Enjoy every minute. Eat as much Taco Bell as you can, when you get older it will gross you out. Drink as many Slurpees as possible, when you get older you won't like 7-Eleven as much. Listen to Prince's "Rasberry Beret" as much as possible so you can sing it to your children as they are lulled to sleep and finally, if any of you youngsters coming up do come up with a way to do things better, a better way to "do life," let me know. I really think you guys will do it better--mainly because your generation is lazy, but at the end of the day--you can't argue with inspiration