Stuck in the middle

Stuck in the middle between college and....where are we supposed to be?

I have somehow found myself in my 30’s and single with no prospects for marriage in site. Before today, this really bothered me. And, to be honest, it will probably bother me again. However, today, I found out that I’m not alone!

I had a fantastic lunch today with an ex-boyfriend/old friend - one of the few ex’s that has survived a breakup with me! We live in Southernville and our friends have all gotten on the train. They did the “college - great job - laid off - great job - marriage - laid off - great job - house - kids - save for retirement” thing. (Note to self: come up with a name) My friends and I are the tail end of generation-X and are on our second recession since graduation in the late 90’s.

All of our friends are building lovely lives together with their spouses. They are on their first or second child. Some friends are already on their second husbands! They have nice cars, nice homes, savings accounts, retirement accounts, investment accounts, college accounts for the kids. Somehow, we missed the train.

It was certainly not for lack of effort. He and I have both dated extensively. We’ve done the college dating, the post-college meet in a bar dating, the online dating, recycled ex’s (including each other!). We aren’t weird people. No odd growths, strange habits, we don’t smell bad, we’re decent looking. In fact, we’re on the decent side of decent looking!

We’ve done everything we were “supposed” to do, except get married. Somehow, we just haven’t managed to fit into the mold you are “supposed” to fit into. I question why - what have we done wrong?