Quarter-Life Quandary

"You are not a little boy.  Nobody is going to hold your hand anymore."

This painful nugget of information was abruptly brought to my attention last week.  My Dad wasn't going for any sort of profound effect with the statement.  In fact he was referring to my current boredom and inability to entertain myself.  But the echo of these words has been on repeat in my head ever since hearing them.  

I do realize I am nearly a quarter of a decade old, and 25 a boy does not make.  Yet, it was not until thinking about my Dad's casual comment that I realized how drastic things could change from those pre-graduate days to the early-to-mid twenties.  I consider myself not a pessimist but a realist, and it was possibly this characteristic that pointed me to the stark truth:  It is all up to me now.  The safety net has been worn and torn into nothingness.  When I make those inevitable, clumsy blunders there are no arms to catch me but my own.  

While some of you may have started walking the tightrope net-less when you gave up those Goosebumps books, I mature at a much slower pace, plodding along in my diapers when you were in your training pants.  My family is semi-regularly supportive of me, and I have close relationships with a generous amount of friends.  But I can no longer rely on them to drop everything when need be and come to my aid.  They have their own fumbles and flubs that they are frantically trying to recover from.  

It is not my intention for this view to make the outlook a bit bleak, and it shouldn't be too unsettling.  A certain sense of liberation comes with this realization.  I have been pointed in the right direction (hopefully) by those around me, and now it is my turn to take the wheel.  I am going to make wrong turns, and yes my car will probably break down once or twice, but these are the trials and tribulations of life and will be dealt with at that instant and not a second sooner.  And with this, I am enlivened...because it is all up to me now.