Where Did All the Grownups Go?

Is it just me, or are twenty somethings really pathetic now-a-days? And not all of them, obviously, because my two little cousins are entirely responsible in their early twenties, both now married, one pregnant and a special ed teacher, the other married and manager at a coffee shop.

But this just strikes me as pathetic.

I am turning 22 and I have no idea what to do. I am living at home with my parents and four younger siblings. I am unemployed and have only worked a few odd jobs since high school. I have taken a few courses at my local university but do not have a degree, let alone any idea what to get a degree in. I was never able to decide if there was any point in going back to school without a real focus.

And I can't imagine this guy is the only 20-something with these same feelings. How did we get here?

At 22 I was dating my now husband, working at a Fortune 500 company, and paying my own way through college - "attending" classes virtually on nights and weekends. I didn't necessarily know what I wanted to do professionally, but I knew my calling was to get a degree and I've always loved school.

The idea of living at home with my mom was horrifying, though I did do a few week stink between moving out of my apartment and getting married and buying our own home. It was rough and both my mom and I couldn't wait for me to move back out.

If my son acts like this when he's 22 I am not sure how I'll be able to be a "good" mom. My instinct is to tell this loser to man up and get over it. What does he expect? For wealth to just be handed over to him without having to work? But then I re-read his letter and he really does seem to be clueless as to how to change.

Have we so pampered our children that they are going through mid life crisis before they're even a quarter of a century old? My grandpa was married and in the military during WWII by the age of 22. And I'm pretty sure they had kids soon thereafter. At age 18 you were considered a man. At that age you either went into college, more likely, you joined the military and got training for a real profession.

My grandfather never went to college. He sucked at school. And yet he ran his own business...two of them actually...successfully. Where has that individual sense of entrepreneurship gone?