The last dance

A wise man once said, "Tomorrow never knows."\nIt's impossible to start the last semester of your college career without a bit of romanticism.\nWe've been conditioned to fear what comes next -- that inevitable humdrum of the real world that allegedly hits us like a bucket of water on a partied-out best friend. Yet, when you're stuck in your hometown for the last time during winter break, you find the time to contemplate what has been and what will be.\nYou can deal with this in one of two ways. The first is to freak the hell out and succumb to the pressure of becoming a model citizen, desperately finding and clinging onto a like-minded mate for dear life as you both blast into adulthood in a jet-powered, monkey-navigated rocket sled. The other is to realize the end of being a wishful undergrad isn't the end of your youth.\nThere are some who are engaged with jobs and houses waiting in the wings as they step off this beer-stained stage, but a large chunk of us just aren't willing (or mature enough) to settle down yet. A recent University of Chicago study revealed the typical urban city-dweller is single for half of his or her life (Chicago Tribune, Jan 9, 2004), a conclusion that could scare anyone into a frenzy because, as we all know, scientific research can create more paranoia than bad marijuana.\nIt has always sounded like receiving a college degree without any substantial plans for stability automatically propelled you into a life of dead-end jobs, dingy bars and regretful one-night stands.\nBut why?\nI take comfort in the knowledge that I have no idea what is coming next. In grade school, you know you're going to high school, and in high school you know you're going to college.\nNow that pre-determined social gauntlet has ended -- and with good riddance.\nIs it a coincidence that "Fight Club," "Old School" and "American Beauty" struck such a chord with us? Tyler Durden, Frank the Tank and Lester Burnham are the extensions of a new modern philosophy of poetic apathy that is just as stable and desirable as true love. Sure we all want to find that one true thing, but some of us don't even know what that thing is, so we might as well indulge in those visceral pleasures of life just a little bit longer until we figure it all out.\nIt's painfully obvious this attitude will get me fired from my first, second and possibly third job, and the naysayers are calling it illogical -- but logic is just an illusion. No variable can be plugged in to solve this one.\nWell, would you look at that? After twenty-two years, I finally applied algebra.\n Calling us adults is giving many people too much credit. There are plenty of you out there who have lived three lifetimes in twenty years. Many have earned their grown-up badge, but there are many left that have a long way to go. Me? I'm just a white kid from the suburbs. Yeah, I want a house and a dog and a four-door, but there's so much more to learn, and it's just not my time.\nBut I wish it were.\nIn the meantime, I'm not giving up on keg-stands and theme parties. I'm not giving up on Cusack-ian silly romantic sentiments. I'm not giving up on video games. I'm riding this gravy train of uncertainty until I slowly settle into the groove of the American Dream -- or until I get drunk, elope and become ironically famous.\nOr maybe I'll just forget all of this and fall in love within the next twenty-four hours.\nBut hey, tomorrow never knows.