From 24 to 30 and Beyond!

When I converse with people who belong to the age bracket of 18 to 24 years; it appears to me that we come from different planets altogether! I have heard about the book, “Men are from Mars-Women are from Venus”.  I now sincerely feel that the time is ripe to write a sequel, “18 to 24 years old are from Mercury whereas the 30+ year’s lot are from Pluto”!  How does life alter so fundamentally within a span of less than a decade? Why am I plagued with a feeling that we are different species altogether? Am I losing my sense of empathy? 

Why do I feel as if I never really was a 24 year old and was always beset with the same set of issues that typically plagues a 30 year old! You don’t even realize how EMI issue becomes more serious than boyfriend issue? It appears as if in a blink of an eye, the problem of buying a house at the age of 30 is certainly far more complicated than the problem of finding a decent well-paying job at the age of 24! What is more difficult? The challenges of starting a family at the age of 30 or the burden of kick starting your career at the age of 24?

In the age gap of 18 to 24, the question of “What next?” doesn’t bother you for the simple reason that the agenda is categorically chalked out for you by your friends and family in the form of a fixed 5 year plan! You literally have a list to cross! Complete your studies-Check! Find a job-Check! Find a decent set of people to socialize-Check! Find a mate to settle down-Check! You are so busy checking the check list to which you attach so much of importance that you end up presuming that your check list has pushed you into the most challenging phase of life.  What could be more challenging than the task of burning mid-night oil in the race of clearing your exams after exams for eventually obtaining your divine degree that would act as a magical key that would open the lock of your destiny and let you in the house of rocking career and financial stability? What would be more painful than the bleeding heart which is forced to tread across the treacherous path of broken relationships? Is there anything more taxing than the unending attempts of finding just the right kind of job that would act as the best launching pad?

Just when you are busy crossing the milestones from 18 to 24 after silently patting yourself on the back for having checked all the items in the “To do list”; you are hardly ready for what lays in store ahead! You have no idea that your time-travelled self has zoomed past into the future and is standing at the gate with a sign of “Welcome to the real world-Your journey has just began, please tighten the seat belt of responsibility and courage, for you are about to take the journey of never ending expectations, both internal and external!”  The feeling of growing up all of a sudden and being solely accountable for all your deeds and actions is scary indeed! In retrospect, you start thinking, what was I fretting and fuming for? Was getting the degree really that difficult? Why on earth was I making a big deal of my broken relationships? Am I not tackling far bigger challenges now? How stupid and naïve was I! How I blew things out of proportion! How I made a big deal out of every little thing which did not really mattered in the long run!

This thought process now sets me thinking. In retrospect, if I find the typical problems of a 24 year old as are less complicated in comparison to what plagues a 30 year old; will I belittle the problems that I face now when I turn 40? At the age of 40, in retrospect, will I reach a conclusion that all my worries were uncalled for? That the issues besetting me at 30 were non-issues really? That I shouldn't have made a big deal out of it?  How I wish I could time travel backwards and comfort my former self that it was pointless to be anxious, that it was meaningless to magnify problems’ that this was just a phase which would get over!

I cannot take a backward journey in time but at this juncture, especially when I am conscious of the fact that my current issues would lose its value and gravity over the course of the next decade, I can certainly decide to relax, to let go off, to calm down as nothing really matters in the larger schemes of things other than peace of mind. And is this realization not what growing up all about?

And if you fail to realize this, you shall forever be stuck at 24! The choice is yours!