Peck: We're just the gatekeepers, Cor, I'm telling ya...

...We're just the gatekeepers. We spend four years scaring you about college, and then when you go away, you realize, it's really not that bad - it's just like high school.
Me: No. You spend four years getting us excited for college, and then we go, and we're disappointed that it's just like high school.

Oh, the "wisdom" of Mr. Peck. What a nut.

Though I'm not quite as cynical as that conversation with Peck makes me sound (stop laughing!), I do always laugh when people go on and on about how "different" college is from high school. Especially the ones who insist that in college, cliques are nonexistent. False. "Drama" gets left in high school? More false.

I was talking to an old friend about the latest drama in a circle of people that I'm on the outside of now. He says to me, "Why are we even talking about this? This shouldn't even be brought up. Aren't we supposed to be hearing about GOOD things happening to people we know? New jobs, career choices, being in love, engagements, that sort of thing? Isn't that supposed to be starting now?"

That's what you'd think, isn't it? And I guess it used to be true. Back when people married younger, and undergraduate school meant more. These days, fewer couples marry right out of college, or right out of high school. And for a lot of jobs, where you earned your bachelors isn't nearly as important as where you got your graduate degree. It's strange, how the timeline shifted like that. Even more strange are the implications of that shift.

"It used to be that you came out of school, and you got married - those who were going to get married. But my peers are getting married in their early 30s, so now there's like this extra 10 years of that angst."
- Zach Braff

He makes a good point. It seems like teenage angst is no longer reserved just for teenagers. It's extending into our twenties - throughout college, and beyond. But why exactly is that? What is different about twenty-something year olds today than twenty, thirty, forty years ago? Since that angst is extending past our teens, has our rate of maturity decreased? And if it has, why has it? What separates our generation for those before us?

I think responsibility is a factor. How it's taught, how much is given. I feel like people often "grow up" when they are forced to - when they are dealt responsibility and must accept it. The concept can be taught, but I guess it's really a more hands-on thing. And with an increasing number of kids going to college, that's another four years that they delay entering the real world. Another four years where they only need to take limited responsibility for themselves. In theory, I guess college is, in part, supposed to teach you to take responsibility for yourself and your actions and whatnot, but it's really just another sheltered environment where, if you don't actively choose to accept your responsibilities, you can skate by. It's hard to actively make that decision, when the alternative is so convenient. Who really wants to be an adult, with responsibilities and obligations? I prefer the Peter Pan route.

And now I'm just rambling. Shutting up now.

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Now playing: Chris Ayer - We Are Birds