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20-Something

20-Something

Welcome to the Jungle, Graduates!

You’ve graduated. Congratulations!

Now — welcome to the jungle. We’ve got fun and games. Life’s not exactly like Axl Rose’s “Welcome to the Jungle”, but sometimes it kind of is. Sometimes it will make you bleed, sometimes it will bring you to your knees and sometimes you learn to live like an animal. Sometimes you’re forced to feel Axl’s serpentine.

Yeesh, that sounded mighty jaded, but I’m turning 29 this year so I’ve developed that obnoxious, “I know everything about your 20s!”-mentality now. The sort of mentality I like to spew upon younger people whether they like it or not.

Like right now. Here are a few things I’ve learned that might help you, too:

It’s OK if you don’t like your career: There is a good chance that you’ll discover the career you went to school for, you end up despising more than all of MTV’s programming once you try it in the real world. It’s OK if you want to switch careers; it’s not a sign of failure. In fact, most twenty-somethings will change (more…)

May 18, 2012 by
20-Something, Hipstercrite Life

I Miss LA

Visiting LA was amazing and confusing. I never imagined that I would miss LA, but I do. I think?

This week I visited Los Angeles. It was my first extended trip since I walked away from the city of wandering angels.

I met up with old friends and revisited familiar locations that I abruptly left almost four years ago. Jumping into the past is both energizing and intimidating. Will I feel disconnected from my old friends? Will I want to stay in the past? Will this trip trigger an existential crisis that will leave me curled up in a ball screaming, “Who am I?!?”

The longer I’ve lived away from Los Angeles the more I’ve romanticized it. I conveniently forgot the aimless journey I was taking there, long nights crying myself to sleep or staring at the ocean sky hoping life would finally happen.

I moved to Los Angeles when I was 20 after being offered an assistant position at an actor’s production company. It took me five years to realize that I didn’t want to put someone before me (more…)

May 14, 2012 by
20-Something, Hipstercrite Life

Sometimes I Miss Being a Sad, Drunken Twenty-Something

Sometimes I think my writing would be much more interesting if I were still a wandering soul.

I used to decry that as a confused early twenty-something my stresses prevented me from thinking creatively. Between the ages of 20 and 25 that I lived in Los Angeles, I did little to release my artistic passions. I was drowning in my self-made cocktail of existentialism and narcissism. Sick of hearing myself talk about my petty, but nonetheless troubling issues caused me to move to another city to “find myself”.

Which I did.

Now I’m boring.

I work from home, forget to change out of my pajamas and garden poorly.

I wouldn’t say that “I’ve figured it all out” though. Who ever does? In many ways, we’re ambling spirtis our entire lives; always searching, always learning and always changing.

However, I’m a far cry from the girl I was five years ago.

The girl at 23 didn’t know what she wanted in a career or in love. She thought she always knew herself, but for the first time (more…)

May 7, 2012 by
20-Something, Hipstercrite Life

Is Life About Taking Risks?

Lately my anxieties have prevented me from living the life I want to live.

It took a lot of self-analyzing and begrudged admittance to say this out loud. I have my theories as to why my anxieties have become as bloated as a Pufferfish in the BP oil spill, but I haven’t yet discovered the answer. One step at a time.

This realization/admittance came after I found myself having an exaggerated and unnecessarily negative reaction to minor obstacles affecting my getting to Portugal to see Geoff (he is currently teaching there for three months).

In other words, I went ape shit girl drama cray-cray: crying, throwing garbage cans, drinking Malibu Rum on the couch and taking 3 hour naps to prevent myself from yelling at people on the sidewalk.

You see, sinking ship American Airlines will not release a voucher to us that would help pay for my plane ticket. This has caused me to scramble to find the resources to get to Europe. A few options have become available (another smaller voucher (more…)

April 30, 2012 by
20-Something, Hipstercrite Life

What I’ve Learned From My Post-College Jobs

source

I had had several jobs before my recent decent into freelancedom.

The reason why I had several jobs is because like most early twenty-somethings I decided that the career path I was on, the career I went to college for, was not right for me.

Well, that’s not exactly true.

I went to college for screenwriting, but ended up in Los Angeles as a personal assistant to famous people. I had completely lost sight of any goals or dreams while working that job. Actually, I really had no idea what my goals and dreams were, but the stress of my job prevented me from thinking about anything other than if my boss was taken care of and if I would die a sad, lonely spinster.

After many years of drinking myself to sleep, it finally dawned on me how miserable I was and I left my career. Finding myself now 25 years old and absolutely clueless as to what to do next, I worked a series of jobs that I thought would interest me (they didn’t) OR just plain ol’ paid the bills (hence my resentment (more…)

April 23, 2012 by
20-Something, Film, Pop Culture

I’m Jealous of Lena Dunham. There. I Said It.

After finding myself rolling my eyes at yet another Internet ad for HBO’s new series, Girls, I had to finally admit to myself that my aversion to Lena Dunham is because I’m utterly and completely jealous of her.

I’ve never wanted to be that girl who dislikes other girls simply because they have something I don’t. I try to be supportive of my gender because we girls need to look out for one another. I think Dunham said it herself in a recent interview, “a success for one woman is a success for all of us.”

Or she could have not said that, I’m not sure. I’ve read so many freaking articles about her lately, I can’t keep track. But if she did say that, maybe she’s right. Maybe she’ll pave the way for us narcissistic twenty-somethings who love talking about our less than unique neuroses and “problems.” We need a champion, damnit!

Or maybe she just fucked us all.

My contention with Dunham developed after viewing the first 20 minutes of her freshman feature, Tiny Furniture. My initial (more…)

April 20, 2012 by
20-Something, Austin, Hipstercrite Life, Pop Culture, Travel

I’ve Angered Some People in Detroit

The weirdest thing happened the other day. The piece I wrote about what the next hipster cities will be was read by more than 45 people and my mother. In fact, in some of the towns I mentioned in the post, the article got passed around like a cheerleader in a frat house (sorry to any of you who were cheerleaders. I’m not sorry if you were in a frat).

The article predicts that Chattanooga, Tennessee, Asheville, North Carolina, Burlington, Vermont, Detroit, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Richmond, Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland will be the next hipster cities.

My article did not sit well with everyone and even prompted a few humorous articles in Detroit in where I’m lambasted for making fun of a city I’ve never been to (it’s true…though like the hipsters I mentioned in the post, I would love to go to Detroit to see all the delicious ruin porn). One article titled “Dear People Who Don’t Know Anything About Detroit, Your Jokes Are Dumb“, I particularly liked. Even Curbed Detroit (more…)

February 24, 2012 by
20-Something, Austin, Hipstercrite Life, Travel

What Are the New Hipsters Cities to Move To?

Sometimes it feels like there is no place more hipster-plentiful than Austin, Texas. The city has become the poster child of what young creatives and entrepreneurs are discharging into this world. When you look up the word ‘Austin’ in the thesaurus, the words, ‘old-timey facial hair,’ ‘your grandmother’s eyewear,’ ‘college degree in food carting,’ ‘bee hive hoarding’ and ‘Which Wich eating‘ appear. It’s true that there is no escaping the fauxhemian gorilla-whale that is running amok in our city.

But are other cities unscathed by the beast? Smaller, up-and-coming cities that are like how Austin was before ‘we’ showed up? Cities that hipsters can flock to now that other, older hipsters have crimped their style of being on the forefront of a burgeoning scene? The answer is yes.

Are other cities unscathed by the beast? Smaller, up-and-coming cities that are like how Austin was before ‘we’ showed up?

Forget Austin, forget Brooklyn, forget Portland, forget Silver Lake. What are the (more…)

February 22, 2012 by
20-Something, Hipstercrite Life, Pop Culture

Hipster Valentine’s Day Gift Guide

This will be the first Valentine’s Day I will have someone to share with in over eight years. Because I used to date douchebags, our courtship was typically as long as a cat’s pregnancy and Valentine’s Day never fell within that time. I’ve never gotten too keyed up about Valentine’s Day, so it’s not like I’m going to expect f’ing roses and shit. The idea that we have to be any more appreciative on one day over all others is silly to me. What if you’re appreciative of your significant other every day? Do you have a greeting card for that shit? Regardless it’s a holiday and it’s not going anywhere and I’m writing about it because I like excuses to make hipster gift guides.

So if you still wondering what to get your hipster sweetie for V-Day, check out these gift ideas below:

When you don’t know how to say it, say the word “fucking”. Always a good way to let your significant other know that you care. Urban Outfitters $39

And when you still don’t know how to say it, but at least have (more…)

February 10, 2012 by
20-Something, Hipstercrite Life

Home is Wherever I’m With You

As of today, I officially moved into Geoff’s house.

When I tell friends this, they usually respond with, “Wow! Taking the big step! Are you excited or nervous?”

Because I feel neither, it confuses me when my friends ask this, but I guess it is a legitimate question. Moving into a boyfriend’s house is a big step, but for some reason I don’t view it that way. It just seems natural.

Considering I’ve been staying here almost every day since we first met, there is no fanfare for my official arrival into the house. Instead I have a pile of crap that needs to find a home in its new home.

As I sit here on his couch, a long, green mid-century couch that was oddly in the film Tree of Life, I look around and see very little that is mine because this is not my house. It is Geoff’s. He designed the house himself with his former long term girlfriend. The design and decor of the house doesn’t scream, “Geoff and former girlfriend!”, nor does it scream, “Just Geoff!” The design is minimal (more…)

February 1, 2012 by