theMediaman.com

Rather confusing entry to start, so I’ll open with a joke… or at least a humourous observation.

I’ve really started to get a lot of compliments about my newly-sported, bare face. Allegedly, I’m more ‘hit-on-able’. Some of that may also be attributable to my sweet tan I’ve earned from full days outside at Live 8 and Canada’s Wonderland. Of course, Simone’s the one who gets the final word, come August 31

More big news. My first crush, first love and long time friend, Rebecca, is getting married this weekend. Just found out yesterday… apparently Paul’s known for months.

On the flip-side, two friends of mine I consider very close are getting seperated.

Compounded with my parents selling the house I grew up in, I feel like I’m experiencing a lot of the ‘Adulthood’ that I’ve successfully avoided for so many years. Living in a basement apartment, driving an economy coupe, and dating a girl almost 6 years my junior has helped to extend my “early twenties” lifestyle. With seven months to go until my 30th birthday, I feel like someone (”up there”?) has decided, “Okay, Stephen. No more innocence nor blissful ignorance for you. Time to be a ‘grown-up’.”

I’m also starting payments into RRSPs this month.

Taking a step back for a moment, things are unfolding in this post as far more dramatic than they really are. I’m not bowled over by the news (x2) I received last night. That might be because I’m already in the middle of dealing with the transition in losing the last tie to my hometown. Maybe it’s because I’ve already dealt with the “Former Love Getting Married” when Ruth did it - especially because I behaved so much like a drama queen after getting that news.

Still, I feel that I should be getting something out of all this happening at once. Like watching a George Romero film, there’s an underlying subtext with a straight-forward moral using zombies as a metaphor for society.

Well, maybe not exactly like a George Romero film.

These are Grown-up issues that need Grown-up resolutions. Before yesterday, the only real shocking split in my life would have been Mike McAlpine’s parents. I was close to his family while they were living in Barrie, and still felt connected after they moved to the US. They weren’t part of my generation, as this most recent seperation is, so I doubt that I should even compare the impact of the two.

I’m not the only one who’s entering Adulthood late, either. A study released yesterday found that almost half of first-time Canadian mothers are over 30. In Ontario, that number has been over half for six years.

Of course there’s the usual reasons cited: people want more financial stability, collecting a few ‘creature comforts’, completing education and employment security. I think what gets forgotten is that everyone just wants to live in Never Neverland a little longer.

I’ve spent the last four years around Simone and her friends, and watched as they passed into their twenties, through the half-way point, and even get established in a job, but still live with Mom and Dad. This has boggled me every time I set my mind to understand why. Simone herself lived at home until she was almost 23. I wasn’t desperate to gain my independence by going away to school, and I certainly don’t complain about my parents as much as Simone and most of her friends do. But I wanted to try out life on my own, without the daily safety-net of coming home to a cooked dinner.

Now here I am, dealing with events normally attributed to Adulthood, and without the benefit of blaming it on “The Big Three-Oh”. That’s another seven months away.

Perhaps this will simply be the prologue to turning 30. After all, “30″ seems a lot more real to me today than it was even when I started thinking about it during my last birthday. There’s a lot more interest to pull in the loose threads in my life… the stuff I’ve let go for so long, like dealing with my overdrafted VISA, only now starting to save in an RRSP, and thinking about a house.

Suddenly, there’s a lot more to this “Independence” thing that I once wanted so decisively. Specifically, having to deal with Adult events… like old girlfriends getting married, old married friends seperating, and the drop of a safety net I haven’t used for years, but always felt better knowing was there.

It’s a lot to take in, but I know I’m ready for it. I don’t feel the need to regress, sprinkle some fairy dust and fly to the “second star to the right” (which, as someone interested in Astronomy, always confused me).

But just don’t expect me to grow up, just because I’m an Adult now.