The early 20’s of life are a odd kind of time. You could say it is either the time when things start going right or start going wrong. It is the judgement day of dreams.
My twenty-three year-old self is finding that adulthood isn’t quite like the impression they give you in school. Working two dead-end and unfulfilling jobs just to barely scrape by a living isn’t exactly where I thought I would end up at this point. What became of those big dreams I always had?
The truth is, those dreams are still there and burning just as much as they did in my childish heart. What has happened, though, is that the boy has been tempered by the cynic. The boy is idealistic. He believes there is more than the daily grind. He believes in big dreams and believes they will become real. The cynic is world-weary. He knows that life isn’t like the stories in books. He plugs away at the senseless grind and doesn’t look far beyond that.
I’ve found the place where the boy and the cynic can both play fair. The boy continues to dream big and the cynic reminds the boy that dreams don’t just happen but they can be attained. It’s a dissonance and a harmony that avoids the pitfalls of both delusion and defeatism. I suppose it is some kind of maturity.
*title and general theme borrowed from the John Reuben album of the same name.
