Life the universe and everything

Many thoughts tonight. I just had a wonderful evening of reading articles about life in our culture and talking about them with my parents. The first is an article in Time magazine about twixters, people that have graduated or dropped out of college that are still living at home with their parents or skipping from job to job, generally putting off becoming a full-fledged adult. Joanna, a friend of mine from Taylor commented on the article in her blog. Upon starting to post a comment there, it quickly became apperent that I had more to say than would make sense to put there.
I have felt the tug of wanting to put off adulthood for a while. I would like to explore different possibilities before settling down into adult life. I would like to try different jobs. I would like to travel to different parts of the world and meet different types of people. I realize that I can't easily do these things once I have a fulltime 'real' job. Also, I'm not sure what I want to do for a career. Throughout our discussion, a few themes came out regarding the reasons people go into this lifestyle.
Some people simply don't want the responsabilities of being an adult. They prefer the comforts of life as a pre-adult, and see no real reason to leave the nest. Since nothing is pushing them out, they comfortably remain.
Some people take this extra time to search for a job that has purpose and meaning. The aren't content to just have a job that pays the bills, they want a job the they can feel good about, a job that challenges them, helps them grow, but that is also enjoyable and fits their personality.
One factor that has greatly influenced the coming about of this cultural movement is the destruction of loyalty. Companies are no longer loyal to their employees. If they can save a few bucks, they'll lay off their employees, and hire cheaaper workers. Our generation grew up moving around as parents got layed off. Family loyalty was shaken by all the divorces of our parents. Our culture has told us that delayed gratification might not ever come, so grab it while you can. And many of us believed it. Sex has been removed from its right context of a commited relationship. Since sex doesn't mean commitement, and a job isn't a long-term commitement, commitement and loyalty have lost their places as virtues.
Many people that are part of this group have rejected the previously held belief that a career should define your life. I think that rejecting this idea is a fresh start. However, I think that many people are turing to the wrong places.
The other article we talked about was a very heated article in Christianity Today regarding sex on college campuses. It tied in well with the Time article. Our culture is reaping what it has sown. So many college students today are throwing their purity away for quick pleasure.
If only we wern't so easily satisfied. If only we wouldn't give up searching for what would really and truely satisfy our soul. It isn't a career, but nor is it drifting through life. It isn't sex, nor is it a rigid moral code.

This conversation was with the backdrop of a funeral. Late last week, a student from our church was killed in a car accident. I firmly believe that obituaries shouldn't contain the phrase "Born in 1986" yet. He was very well known among the High School students (he'd just graduated last year), and his Mom works in the schools as well. Life is short, and full of beauty and pain. Makes be glad that my recent travels were safe. Also, it makes me wish Ann wasn't on a different continent, so I could just hug her...

Wow, that was really rambling. *sigh* ok, i'm really tired, and going to go to bed now.

Lonely

Well, this past thursday, I drove Ann to the airport for her semester in Spain. The trip went ok, but I miss her...

She'd been here since Sunday. We had a wonderful time together. On Tuesday, we drove into Chicago. She'd given me a trip to a science museum together last Christmas and we'd not found time to do it. We went to the Science and Industry museum. It was a lot of fun. Afterward, we visited a few friends in the area, and then went and saw Phantom of the Opera. It was really good! I liked the live-stage version a little better, because it's hard to beat a live performance, but it was still very good. The drive home was very snowy, but we got home safely. The other days, we just hung around the house.

We've had a lot of time together as a family the last couple days. Friday, there wasn't school for either Peter or my Mom. We hung around for the afternoon. Peter went to see Phantom of the Opera with some of his friends. Mom and I went to JoAnn fabric to get supplies for painting the border on my room. Dad got home resonably early on Friday. We made some puzzles, ate dinner and played cards. Dad Peter and I played 11 games of triple solitare. That just wasn't my night: I didn't win any games. But we all had fun. And I went to bed early :).

Today, I set up my computer in my bedroom, and tried out the stencils I got for the room border. Peter spend the day with Heidi and her family, cross country skiing. Mom, Dad, and I watched the original Flight of the Pheonix. It wasn't terrible, but I still wouldn't recomend it to anyone. The story outline was pretty cool, but most of the movie was characters arguing with each other. I'd like to see the new version sometime, once it comes out on video.

Well, goodnight world!

Just a quick update today. Going to finish the last coat of paint in my cloest today, and get some laundry done. My grandma is recovering fairly well. We're thinking about going down this weekend to help out and hang out.

Ann comes soon :)

I'm off to get stuff done.

You're Canada!

People make fun of you a lot, but they're stupid because you've
got a much better life than they do. In fact, they're probably just jealous.
You believe in crazy things like human rights and health care and not
dying in the streets, and you end up securing these rights for yourself and
others. If it weren't for your weird affection for ice hockey, you'd be
the perfect person.
Take
the Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid

Memories

As of yesterday, Ann and I have been dating for 1 year and 4 months. We got to talk for a while on the phone, and it was very good to think over where we've been. It will be hard the next couple months while she is in Spain. I'll miss her a lot.

Today, I'm going to be putting the second coat of paint on my room. The paint almost, but not quite, completely covered the original color. The new color is lighter.

Oh, please be praying for my grandparents. My grandma (dad's mom) just broke her hip :(. She had two pins put in it yesterday. During the power outage, their sumppump didn't work, so they had 6 inches of water in their basement. She was downstairs starting to clean when she tripped over a box. They still have a lot of work to do cleaning up that, but obviously she can't be doing that right now.

Well, I'm off to the paint store.

I'm a nerd

Well, I'm a nerd. I'm 3/4s nerd. I get a C in the nerd grade book.

Ok, I'm done saying dumb things about that.

Today was a fun day. Jon Rasbach (a good friend all growing up) came over for lunch today, and we hung out for a the start of the afternoon. This evening, Jerry Lucas came and spoke at our church. He's a teacher of memory techniques. It was very interesting. As just a side story, he told of when he was a little kid on a long car trip, he taught himself to spell alphabetically. IE Tree would be eert. Book would be bkoo. Different would be deeffinrt. It isn't a useful skill, but was really neat, and weird at the same time.

I got to talk to Ann on the phone this evening :) I'm very glad that my dad's cell phone has unlimited nights and weekends. Chris Erickson also came over, and we played poker. I won, but near the end, we were both playing recklessly since we knew he had to go soon. It was fun.

Goodnight everyone.

Well, welcome to the new year!
Most of my friends are currently without power, due to the large ice-storm in Indiana. My grandparents in Ohio also don't have power. We [obviously] have power up here in Michigan, and I don't know how widespread the problems are. They were esitmating that it wouldn't be until this coming weekend that power was restored.
On a happier note, I finished the first part of painting my room today, and will be doing the rest tomorrow. Last night, my parents and I had a time where we sat down and talked about goals in my life, and expectations that we each had. It was a very good and encouraging time. I feel very good about where I'm headed, even though I still don't really know where that is...
Dad has very much put me in charge of the painting project, asking me "What do you do next?" instead telling me what to do. It was just what I needed to break out of the listlessness (that's a fun word) that I'd fallen into.
The immediate future, I'm going to living at home, doing housework (my mom is working as a teacher), and getting ready for whatever is the next step for me. The last 3 or so weeks since I finished at Taylor have been wonderful. I feel much more at peace with myself, and confident in my ability to accomplish things. I've been able to set and meet goals, which is very good.
Anyway, like always, I'm going to head to bed after writing this.
~affert