twenty six; it's the new twenty four

turning twenty-six feels like being a sophomore in high school again. there is nothing energizing, interesting, or significant about the birthday. you're not a mid-twenties neophyte anymore, but you're not quite an established adult either; especially when you haven't yet chosen a clear career and don't have any long term relationship prospects (i'm going strictly off what it seems like parents and/or other responsible adult types base being grown-up off of). i don't mean that to sound condescending, because, let's be honest, i'm not grown-up. if i were, i could support something besides my unlimited text message plan, and even that is becoming a struggle.

i like to think i've amassed some good experiences in my salad days, but it's more likely that i've really just amassed a substantive amount of debt and a lack of direction. the true american dream.

based on what i witnessed at some of these tea-bagger parties today, i'd say me and all 13 forthcoming generations of my family are pretty much boned and might as well just call it a day now. or wait, we're supposed to be patriots and stand up against tyranny and despotism or something. it's weird. all i know is, republicans have not been in power for like 15 minutes, and they're all losing their minds. i mean, at least let obama do something that appears stupid, like take an extended vacation right before the largest major attack ever calculated on u.s. soil or spend an entire budget surplus on funding a war and tax cuts for multi-billion dollar corporations, before we start having protests and riots in the streets. actually, i'd be interested to see where our infallible economic system would go if the government just decided not to do anything. i would venture to guess it would do something like take a bunch of bad assets and carve them up into fake securities with over-inflated values and sell them off all over the world spreading the misery of irresponsibility to everyone. i mean, let's be honest folks - we're all the ones responsible for the shit sandwich that we're having to eat right now. i'm pretty sure this economic crisis didn't start eighty five days ago.

anyway, who knows what got me going on that. i was really here to deprecate myself and my lack of any substantive direction at age twenty-six, but i guess it probably just makes me feel better to point out the short-comings of others.

but in all seriousness, i actually feel pretty good about the direction life is going right now. i'm in the full swing of looking for a teaching job for the upcoming fall, which is something that i've really wanted to pursue since graduating, but always seemed to find an excuse not to. i believe it will be a really good fit for me and open many doors for me and most importantly for the students i will be teaching. this is also really the first time since graduating that i have felt positive about pursuing a career that i could be passionate about that will lead me down a path i think i belong on. i am looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead.