What constitutes the typical age 20?

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . March 22, 2009 . 2:18AM

One of the things about the way life turned out for us is that we never did the things people do in their “typical 20s.” Actually, nothing was ever really typical for us at all. We met, fell in love, got married, got pregnant and had a baby all within a really short time. For me, that time period was in between my 20th and 21st year. I spent my 21st birthday pregnant.

Every now and then I think both Husband and I feel like we missed something, but it never feels overwhelming that we missed those “typical experiences.” Husband had plenty of odd experiences in his teen years, which I won’t expound on as this isn’t his blog and if he ever wants to share about the time the police came after him and his friends for walking through the drive-thru at Taco-Bell, that will be his story to tell. Just like Whitney Houston, “he partied” and I don’t think he feels like he missed much. He did the dorm thing and had a group of friends.

I was the exact opposite. I lived at home, did the community college thing, spent my time with a crazy boyfriend who I went to high school with, and worked quite a bit to pay for college, my car and other expenses. I can’t understate the craziness of the boyfriend. He actually believed he had the Force. From Star Wars. And that he was from the Dark Side. Go on and laugh. I’ll wait. I still don’t know what I was thinking and neither did my friends and family at the time. They patiently waited for me to screw my head on properly.

Because of that situation, I had alienated just about everyone I knew, as it goes with obsessive, crazy, nutcase relationships. There were no parties because I worked on the weekends. I also didn’t drink. This meant that when I went to the parties, I wasn’t exactly the type of person that everyone was happy to see.

So, where am I going? Our early 20s were spent raising a child, going to school and trying to make it out of the hole and into a home. Now, I’m almost to 30 and I spend my Saturday nights hanging out at home and watching the Scrubs I’ve tivo’ed all week. I still don’t do parties like the Sex and the City 30′s singles I know, my life is comfortable. I’ve managed to get work on my class done this weekend and some minor studying for my mid-terms accomplished. I’ve written emails, responded to posts and spent a lot of time on my computer. I’ve played games with my son and napped with my husband.

No, my twenties aren’t typical. But they are mine and they are comfortable. I’ll take them.