Diablo, Pokemon, and Real Life

I’ve been wondering lately when we were all given permission to be adults.  It seems as though our possession of maturity is an automatic assumption at a certain age. 

But I still feel like I’m 12.  Some days I catch myself driving and think, “Whoa, when did I get my license?  That’s for grown-ups!” But, oh yeah, I’ve been driving for 4 years.

I put my Pokémon cards on eBay the other day.  Maybe that’s the point when you know you’ve reached maturity; when you can sell your Pokémon cards with no emotional debate inside yourself, you’re ready for the real world.  Then the question becomes: Who the hell buys them, anyway?

And at some point we are all going to be chewed up by whatever college we end up at and spit out into the real world.  I think we have this idea that we aren’t gonna be spit up, but digested in some magical, transformative enzymes and come out already settled in our new, “real world” lives.  But honestly, I think that’s about as likely as a hippy at the Republican National Convention.

I’m halfway through college. 

Wait.

What?

…Really?  This isn’t middle school still?  But I’m…still raising my hand in class.  I still have reading quizzes…. I still fail reading quizzes!  I’m banking on Sparknotes for a large portion of my educational success for God’s sake!  And before you criticize me, you try reading the Odyssey, Beowulf, and Hamlet all in one weekend.  Yeah, exactly.  Shut up.

I guess my point here is that I’m still waiting for some spritely wood nymph to come twirling into my room one night and sprinkle me with Real Life dust.  I’ll wake up one morning and feel totally ready, totally prepared for everything the world has to throw at me.  I’ll seek it out, even.

At some time during our years in this melting pot of frat-y tank-wearers (I could be mistaken as one, I’ll admit), high-sock-sporting hipsters (I own quite a few pairs of high socks as well…), and nerdy, awkward gamers (My monk is almost a level 60 in Diablo, my wizard isn’t far behind, and my witch doctor is catching up) I suppose we are expected to discover what we want to do with our lives and not only commit to it, but find our place in whatever world we wish to inhabit after college.

But…how?