The Golden 20s

The four of us are sitting in our tiny kitchen. Since we only have two chairs, one of us climbs onto the windowsill and I just make some room for myself on the floor. There are veggie burgers, tea and bear for dinner tonight. A classic. The dishes from yesterday are piling up but as long as we know how to ignore that it seems okay. The girl I share this apartment with lights up a candle that she once stuck onto an old wine bottle. 'Welcome to our cliche 20s life!' is what I think while eating left over salad out of the big bowl we all shared so there wouldn't be more dishes to do. And while we're switching topics from A crossing Z to get to B, I sit still for a moment, look at the others and wonder:

How is it possible that the four of us - who are all about the same age - can be at such different places in their life right now?

Back in school it seemed so easy and obvious: we were caught in a structural system that made us all head the same direction. After each summer it was clear we would all be back in our seats, we would all make similar experiences with friendship, love and family. And just like that - only few years later - we are sitting here in this kitchen.

One of the girls opens a Pinterest board where she saved all kinds of inspiration for her future wedding - which she would like to have 3 years from now. Both, her and her boyfriend are in steady jobs at a bank already. Kids are planned for when she's turning 26.

My friend next to her is 26 already and marriage to him seems as far in the future as it could be. Kids not so much. He has a lot of sex so the risk of an unplanned child is pretty high. His plan for life right now: travelling, tattooing, surfing, drawing, meeting new people and making connections. What sounds like creativity and freedom only is also covered with the feeling of being a little lost in this world and not knowing ones place in society.

For now he's staying with me and my flat mate - a girl that loves having visitors at our place. We have people in our apartment all the time which was actually one of our goals when we moved in: to create a space where everyone felt welcome and happy to be at. She contributes to that a lot. I don't know anyone else who has that many friends. When it comes to guys she likes to stay independent. Kids and marriage aren't even in the picture for another 10 years.

And then, there is me. I like to think I'm a writer. Reality is I spent most of my time going to uni but thinking about anything other than my classes. Mostly about life itself. About other people. Their stories. Connections. Moments. Friendship. Love. Hate not so much. Highs and Lows. Dead ends. Nothing new but still: society and all the individuals it includes are so interesting to me that I thought I should start sharing what comes to my mind. So basically chaos. I created this account to share chaos. Because that's what it is. That's what the 20s are like. A lot of chaos - but mostly golden!