There comes a time in everyone’s life where a period of intense physical, physiological and psychological transitions occur. Your balls have already dropped / you’re way out of training bras, and you’ve been stripping yourself of bush for years so you’re definitely far off puberty. And you’re not forgetting your address or going grey so it’s not a midlife crisis. You happen to be fit and nimble, and everyone is telling you that the world is your oyster. But call me shellfish, this comment is fine until you sample said oyster and realise – heck – you don’t actually enjoy having freakishly slimy, slightly chewy yet soft, weird, brownish snot ball look-alike things in your mouth.
As a Gen Y, I myself am a product of the best educated, most technologically savvy generation alive. I literally do have opportunities at my doorstep. But on occasions I find myself envious of the Baby Boomer parentals that produced me. For the life of me, I do not remember a day that I did not look at a computer screen. Having said that, I can’t really remember what I had for breakfast. But would you care to take some interest in the fact that I can recite plenty of Marketing jargon terms and their meanings? As a graduate, this is a superior and enviable skill. One which has not delivered me a job but this is not the point.
This feeling has brought me to beseech the question, is it possible that our brains are cramming up? Seriously, though you may think I’m stupid. And though, when I was a child, I did believe that I possessed a brain so brimful that it would swell and explode, as an adult I am once again pondering the issue. I should note that in my time as a youngster I also believed that you could run out of voice, as your voicebox contained only so many noises that if you used the same noise over and over you would eventually run out. There were many more beliefs comparable to those aforementioned but if I delved into them now you’d probably believe I was partially retarded. Which I am not. But back to my valuable and credible point, I do believe we are overusing our brains.
It appears that this overuse results in us twenty-somethings burning out. What else could explain this incessant desire to ‘chill out’, or our nostalgia for our childhood coming 20 years earlier than it should. We constantly seek reassurance and are aiming for unrealistic goals and working jobs we hate to keep up appearances, because if we’re not educated, not well travelled and not earning big bucks then we are not successful, and the levels of depression amongst 20-somethings is soaring. But we are LIVING. And should be LOVING this LIVING.
Consequently, I shall take it upon myself to cease filling up my brain with anything I don’t want to know. So if you’re conversing with me about that really weird dream you had last night, or that terrible run-in you had with your long lost aunt who buys toilet paper at the same place you do, or your mortgage, you may see me nodding my head and losing my gaze. This is me filing your boring story into the ‘do not need to remember’ folder, and I will therefore lead a happier and healthier life.
leathers & laces 