So, being a single twentysomething has its perks.  I am young enough to stay up late on the weekends.  I’m not so young that I have to check in when I stay out late.  I have my own place.  I have a job that pays the bills (even though it doesn’t always feel that way).  I’m educated.  I’ve never known Christ the way I know Him now.

On the other hand, there is this problem that, apparently, many twentysomethings experience: a diminishing social life.  In college, there were almost always people to play with.  Someone was hanging a singing reindeer out my window to the windows below (yay RuePaul!); we had formals once a season and other themed parties every month or so; frisbee golf was played on campus; people were playing the composite game or “I’ve never” somewhere; groups went off-campus for good eatin’; all-nighters were pulled with a study buddy in the Phi Mu lobby; and random games were played on the hall– not to mention party central in Megan’s room all the dang time.  College was awesome for my social skills!  I mingled with remotely educated people and explored the differences between myself and others; I grew as a human being and I grew in Christ.  Now, though, I’ve left college; there seems to be almost no one around who are my age (and, those who are my age are likely paired off or parenting or at the bar scene).  Some of my friends live far away.  Others live close but just far enough away that I don’t run in to them the way I did in college (I mean, we were in the same sorority and lived only one floor apart.).  I have a job teaching teenagers alongside people who are roughly retirement age.  On top of all of this, I recently left my church due to all the ways I changed in college.  Those people are still friends, but they’re doing different things than I am, now.

Some days, I feel so alone.  Other days, I feel so blessed.  Still, other days, I feel blessed and alone.

The truth is, no one has everything going perfectly for them.  When I was in college, the rooms were small and the paychecks– even smaller.  When I get married, I will likely still complain that there aren’t people nearby to play with (hehe, besides my husband).  When I have kids, I will long for this sense of aloneness that I have every day of my life right now!

We’re never content.  That’s why we’re always preparing and longing for the next big thing– the next chapter in our lives.  Graduate high school and go to college.  Get married.  Get a job.  Have 2.5 kids (what does that “.5” mean, anyway?  Like a dog, or something?  Or does the husband count as half a kid?).  Get those kids into soccer and piano (and the dog–or husband– had better be trained).  Support the bandboosters.  Cheer your kids through graduation and pay for their college.  Move up in your job.  Retire.  That’s the ideal plan for many Americans.

But who wants all of that if you don’t have friends or a social life?  We’re designed for socialization.  We thrive when we put our heads together.  We are most effective as a group.  We should not be alone.

Thank goodness that, tonight, I have plans to be social.