Style in Sweden

They say it’s tough to be a teenager because you don’t feel like a child anymore but you are not an adult either. It is something in between. I am 26 and I still feel like that.

Some of friends are already married and have kids. When I meet them it’s all about the kids. First teeth, baptism, diarrhoea, diapers…well the usual baby topics.

When everybody knows the latest baby updates we talk about how incredibly old we are although we are all twenty-somethings.

On the other hand, there are my friends who still live in a dorm and enjoy their life as students including sleeping until 2pm and partying four times a week.

Most people I know either are in the student or in the baby stage. I am wondering what happened to the stage in between?! The stage where you build a career, live in a nice apartment, travel, spend lots of money on fantastic clothes and go to hip parties.

I mean there must be something between a dorm and a diaper! I can’t identify with any of them at the moment. I don’t feel old but I am definitely done with my student life!

I read in the German magazine Spiegel that my generation tend to marry at a younger age again due to insecurity – economic insecurity but also emotional insecurity. The latter means the feeling that you don’t know what to do with your life. Starting a family is definitely a way to make life more meaningful and secure because there are people around you who are always there for you (in the best case).

I think the wish to study as long as possible has similar roots. The university gives security since you have a plan of your life as long as you are a student. If people ask what you are doing you always have an easy and clear answer.

I don’t want to criticise the decisions of other people but it would be great if my interests were a little bit more respected because I am sure that there is a stage between the dorm and the diaper. People with babies sometimes forget that not everybody is as fascinated by first teeth as they are. People can have other passions. For me it’s fashion, music and gender politics.

Sometimes students can’t understand if I don’t want to join the next big party and throw a couch out of the window. Therefore I have been called “boring adult” lately.

I am not boring! But yes, I am an adult.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 10:40 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.