childhood's end

In my chemistry department, there is a tradition of signing a cloth bear upon completion of physical chemistry.

Well. The bear has been signed

And thus ends my undergraduate career. This is my coming of age.

In the past ten years or so, there have been a lot of movies and stories about twenty-somethings or thirty-somethings that just haven't gotten their act together yet. They're usually considered romantic comedies of some sort...but there might be a better classification: they're coming of age stories.

Coming of age stories are what you get when the safety nets are taken away, when you have to be proactive with your own life. This step is being pushed further and further back, so we're coming of age later and later. I wonder when the pendulum will reach its height and begin swinging the other way...

Pax
.....