The Generation of the Inexperienced

So my uncle Mike tells me I should write a book, and maybe I will. And I will call it "The Generation of the Inexperienced and the Quarter-life Crisis", because I think this time in a person's life...is not harped upon enough.

This, in between, half grown up, half too young, quarter-life crisis is unavoidable. At least that is the conclusion I have come to.

I thought I was escaping it. All my friends that had already graduated warned me, "it's so weird", "it's scary, I miss school", "just wait, you'll see...good luck." And I thought to myself, Ha, I have you all beat, I am one step ahead. Because see, I don't even like my school, so I'm not attached, and I'm over the college scene, so I won't miss that either. And THEN, I'm going to move to a beautiful place and start fresh and not have to worry about all the calamities that come with being freshly graduated.

And I'm sure, you all laughed at me under your breath. All of you who dished out the warnings and shared your crisis-related knowledge that I so arrogantly disregarded.

I said, Oh, I'll just work at a coffee shop. Then the coffee shop asked me, "well, have you ever worked in this business before?" And I thought, by business do you mean pouring a cup of coffee...perhaps a cappuchino?? C'mon. I think if you showed me what button to push, and where the cups are stored, I wouldn't burn your "business" to the ground or anything.
If I get one more phone call with the oh-so-sweet response of "We have chosen a more qualified candidate, but we would love to keep your resume on file for future reference." Uh-huh, sure, you do that. I have my own conclusions about what "on file" means.

So, really I'm just venting because I got a coffee the other day, and walked out laughing at the fact that after 4 years of college and working, I am not qualified to work there.

In reality, I landed a pretty solid job at this restaurant that I have been mentioning, and I am now waiting tables. My boss says I'm doing an amazing job and that I've learned very quickly. Weird, when you train a person, they learn...maybe other local "businesses" should write that one down. Because this inexperienced, underqualified, "on files" around the state girl, is making 20% tips in a fine dining restaurant when she's never even served food at her own dining room table.

The other part of the Quarter-life crisis is the pull between the college scene and the slighty more sophisticated idea of what "going out" means. We went out the other night downtown. We were meeting up with some people we know, and they lured us to this bar that lended out plenty of reasons why I should not enter it, right off the bat. The music was Kiss 95.7 style screaming from inside out to the line of black dress, large, glittering jewelry-wearing, stilhetto-ed girls bouncing around in line. For all you ECSUers, it was Sports Bar on speed. And we know how Lauren felt about Sports Bar, haha.
Inside, I took a front row seat to the stage, where people were dancing. I couldn't take my eyes away. It was one of the funniest things I have ever scene. One girl in particular was the epitome of the Dane Cook joke, "I just wanna dance....no guys, put our purses in the middle, take off our shoes and just DANCE." And to watch the guys try to bust a couple moves with her, was enough to keep me entertained for the rest of the evening. They couldn't keep up, and they tried so hard.

Needless to say, the pull toward the college scene of packed bars, sweaty dancing, and cheap well drinks, has turned into more of a people-watching project for me. It's definitely a slice of life worth investigating...from the outskirts.

My own slice of life has taken a bit more shape here. And it's getting colder. Only about a month and a half until the rain turns to snow, and my life here takes on it's intended purpose.