the roaring twenties

Sometimes I feel like roaring. Being a twenty-something can be more difficult than I imagined.
It seems that the whole point of this period in life is to find out and solidify who I am. i.e., to Grow Up.
Not only do I have to try different views on for size, to see how they fit, I have to test out the beliefs I hold in the varied company of friends, coworkers, family members, acquaintances, strangers... and learn to be the same in whichever social setting I find myself.
It may be a delusion that this time of tension and trial will end once I cross the thirty line.
Also, the fact that I take for granted the twenties as the time for self-definition is probably largely due to my location in history and geography. Lots of people are theorizing that we post-modern Westerners have succeeded in streching out our adolescence further than anyone in the past. We also no longer have any established rites of passage into adulthood to help us know who we are and how we fit in...
Which leaves me thinking and talking about it a lot, and writing a blog about it. The ontology -- the metaphysical study of being -- of Emily -- me, myself, and I.