Graduation To Shame

Seattle is a beautiful city, it’s true. Full of trendy coffee shops, amazing vintage stores and neighborhoods; it calls to hipsters and young people like a gigantic ipad projected into the sky. I know it well, even calling myself a Seattle-ite when it comes right down to it.

But I must confess, I can’t give a Seattle zip for my address.

I was born there, later moving to Gig Harbor when my parents got tired of raising two kids in the city. I moved away to college in Ellensburg like a good girl, and upon graduating moved home (An area just a ferry ride across from Seattle) like any self respecting graduate with no money. 

So here I am. Waking up every morning to my Dad making me coffee, my mom getting ready for work and my dogs just making a general racket.

And that’s okay.

It’s quite a leap for me to be writing those words: It’s okay.

Because for quite some time now (And possibly once a week on a particulary rainy day) I was in the dark place. The I’ve-graduated-and-have-no-plan-and-I-live-with-my-parents place.

This is a reality for graduates in their twenties. It shouldn’t be a thing of shame; according to a study conducted by Twentysomething Inc., a consultant firm specializing in young adults, 85% of graduates in 2011 will be moving back home after graduation.

Ouch.

There is a social expectation today that we should be accomplishing things right out of the chute. Big things, things our parents passed on to us! Like taking up the good fight against whale hunting or painting signs to protest against healthcare, or the tea party!

But we are an apathetic bunch: a tweeting, facebooking bunch. We like to connect to each other on the internet, rather then holding hands at the picket line.

And that goes for dating too.

I’m not sure if you’ve seen the television ads, or been on any of the multitude of dating websites that are available to us today, but basically they offer the following things:

A myriad of available singles to choose from

An “easy, fun” way to meet people

A way to “find someone uniquely right for you!

If they were really being truthful they might say:

A total time sucker

Lonely guys in their thirties

A way to falsify and embellish the only good things about you!

And okay, that is not to say that I have not had anything good come of dating websites. Mr. Polite (whom I shall speak of further at a later date) continues to be a good time, and not a serial rapist! In fact, a large majority of relationships today begin on the internet.

So this also should not be a source of great shame. But for some reason, it still rings of desperation and sadness.

Why is that?

In any case, I have a job interview on Tuesday at a theatre, so here's hoping. My potential roommate (Another single 20 something) and I are also meeting next week to discuss rent and possible areas we'd like to move to. I'm thinking Queen Ann; I like the area, the people are friendly and not so Cap-Hill-in-your-face-hipster. Which can be scary sometimes. Capital Hill's hipsters have a passionate apathy that is something to be admired and feared. 

Or perhaps Fremont. Or West Seattle. Although West Seattle was where I was going to live with the X. And that, my friends, is a much longer story.