The Real World: Is it all that you dreamed, or feared, it would be? Worse? So many kids today, myself included, find all sorts of ways to postpone hitting the “real world” for as long as possible. Some may call it laziness, others shear brilliance, but the fact remains that few people actually want to charge head first into the daunting world of adulthood. With all of the pressures of responsibility, bills, and fleeting fun, who can blame us?

Nevertheless, a problem arises when we finally are forced to grow up and are suddenly confronted with the world today – a job-sparse, economically challenged era when all of our fears are realized and the reasons for our procrastination are revealed to have been quite unreasonable. I spent an extra year in college before deciding to go to three years of graduate school all to avoid ending up where I am now. I supposedly took the “safe” route that was guaranteed to land me a high paying job that would have me paying off my debts and on my way to an early retirement. So much for that. Starting salaries for my graduate-studied profession have dropped nearly 65% in the last two years making it virtually impossible for me to live AND make my minimum monthly debt payments, all of this assuming of course that I can even get a job amongst the superfluously-populous, better-qualified job seekers.

In the end, I’m left to question and ponder the “what-ifs” and “what-could-have-beens” had I made different choices a few years ago. I don’t regret any path that have traveled or any experience, bad or good, that I have had. I just find myself thinking as I did five years ago, wanting to postpone the inevitable.

Unfortunately, inculcation of societal pressures ensures that I feel that my time is both up and now. I can no longer put off that which I dreaded for so long even though I picked the worst time to face the music. It’s similar to purchasing stock at a premium just before it falls or buying a home at the peak of the housing market only to see it crash the next day. I postponed the world to wait for a brighter time, and in so doing, I missed it.

In sum, as Ol’ Blue Eyes and now Mr. Bublé hopefully chime in:

“That’s life, that’s what all the people say.
Your riding high in April,
Shot down in May.
But I know I’m gonna change that tune,
When I’m back on top, back on top in June.”