27 Years

I started this post to look back on my 27th year, because it was a year benchmarked with drawled thoughts of, "Gawd, I am such a grown up." Yes, those years right after college, venturing into the workforce and then living and teaching in South Korea for a year gave me newfound perceptive and opportunities to showcase my adult-ness. But far enough past the automatic progression of school years, a 27-year-old is faced with the humdrum of day-in-and-day-out and is forced to make real, solo decisions.

In my 27th year, I became legitimately interested in things I had before only really wanted to like. Life stories from those older than me, politics, and saving for retirement got the blood flowing. I went free market and bought health insurance on my own for the first time, made donations to organizations I started to read and whose work I care about, and bought my first car. This is the age where I started to legitimately forget how old I was.

At 27, I began digging my heels into my grumpy cat ways, really trying to figure out my introversion. I cared slightly less about what I thought people thought about me, and I have come through my 27th year feeling more exhausted with my adult responsibilities. It's like things are easier but harder. I am roller blading down the hill but up the hill. Twenty-seven was a pivotal year in overall awareness.

When my college friend died unexpectedly at 27 just before Thanksgiving, it was hard to think about feeling positive about that 27 personal growth bit. I instantly pulled up Facebook and clicked on her profile. She had just uploaded a new profile picture... I had seen it a couple of days before on my New Feed. She had just texted me a few weeks ago. We had just been to the same party two or three months ago.

Lena Dunham's "GIRLS"

HBO's "GIRLS" hits so many notes with me. Maybe it's just my status a twenty something trying to figure out my life. I suppose being a girl also helps me relate. It took a couple of episodes for me to warm up to the series because Lena Dunham writes up a complex set of characters. I find myself rooting for them and sharing in their celebrations. But the characters are also very unlikable and discouraging, as real people always are. They've got twisted ideas about relationships and what life is supposed to be. They mess up and do things I don't agree with. Their friendships are extremely intimate but complicated and wavering. They are confused yet confident about what they think they know. It's a real test to watch them to try to figure them out to align myself with them. Lena Dunham writes up a complex show.

The show is refreshing, shocking. Many of the scenarios are so offbeat, I wonder that Lena must have lived them or had a friend that did. How does she do it? How does one write a show with these characters that have such girth and oddities and are so believable? It's art.

That's not much of a review, but I needed to give the show a bit of a shout out.