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.