last good country: When everything you were told was wrong
Some awesome stuff from Dave Stroup. There were many times in my mid and late 20s when I was bummed that I had just missed the dotconomy. I got my dotcom job just as the place exploded, and by the time I got to DC, the tumbleweeds were blowing through the place.
There’s a con that happens somewhere along about 14. Somewhere, it gets in your head that college is all that matters. It’s a twist on what they meant to tell you, which is that learning matters. Learning how to learn, specifically. That’s what matters. But we hear “college” because that’s what’s tangible.
Anyhow, we get out of college, most of us, and it’s like, “Okay! What now?”
There’s no standard What Now. There never has been.
That’s the con.
What you do when you reach the end of the trip, well, son, that’s up to you. Making that realization is a critical part of growing up, and what you do in response is absolutely a part of who you are. That’s the origin of the quarter life crisis, and that’s what sets you on your path. That’s the breakaway moment. You’re in your orbit now. There’s still family to lean on, to talk to, to gather experience from. There’s still friends to hang with, to learn from, to work with. But from now on: it’s all you. You decide what to make of yourself now.
That’s what makes all of this fun.
For variable values of fun.
