Can you feel those creaky bones??

Today began like any other: my alarm went off at 5.30am (yes, THAT early), i cycled to work uneventfully and i prepared myself for another half day of monotony.

At around 9.45 everyday, we (the team at work) have, what the management call, a 'Team Talk' (original i think not). Whereby for a cool 15 minutes we either get lectured about the state of the store, or we get praised for maintaining our standards.

It's usually lectured and i usually switch off when it comes to the same point often raised about selling our store cards, which incidentally i don't really agree with wholeheartedly.

There's nothing unfamiliar about my situation, thousands of like-minded individuals such as myself are suffering the same condescension everyday, and are probably in worse jobs.

However, today, something struck a nerve.

Whilst the familiar blurb about the All Saints 'MasterCard' was being conducted at us, like we were some kind of orchestral movement, i uttered something to my fellow co-worker/co-conspirator stood next to me. All of a sudden it was like i unleashed Zeus' fury, for our dear manager had bit my head off before i'd even finished my sentence. I stood there resembling Charles the First on execution day.

I stopped in my tracks. Then looked around. Had i just been 'told off' in front of the team for talking out of turn? I wasn't even talking, merely uttering something that had in fact relevance to the usual drone that eminants in 'team talk'. It was pretty embarassing, and then i got thinking...

Age is something we place so much importance on; various questions frequently pop into our heads about reaching certain goals by such-and-such an age. Maybe not everyone thinks about it like that, but i do and i think it becomes increasingly more apparent in your mid-20's.

This is what this morning made me think: "I'm 25, i'm working on the shop floor of a clothes store and i'm being told off for talking."

All of a sudden i felt like i was back in Middle School, except being paid next to nothing for the pleasure.

Waves of nauseating panic washed over me, and my senses were screaming "WHAT ARE YOU DOING MORGAN?"

I'm working in a shop. At 25. I have a degree. I have little to no job satisfaction.

Now this may read like i'm a little down about my situation, and yes to a certain extent i am, but i'm trying to worm my way out of it. This whole anxious feeling is a classic symptom of a 'mid-20's crisis. Many young people today are exiting uni, having graduated later than most (myslef a prime example) only to find a world of the mundane and dross waiting for them on the otherside.

24-26 is a very strange time in any adults life, and i feel it's because of numerous reasons.

One, is the pressure from an overtly capitalist society (don't roll your eyes because i've unleashed social theory into this, read on), exuding pressure on us to compete with one another and reach a status that we deem appropriate for ourselves by the time we're a certain age. Why do you think when any form of media publication mentions a celebrity, it'll mention how old they are? I maybe incorrect in my arguement, but it makes you feel like you could/should have achieved as much if not more by the time you are/were said celebrity's age.

Two, we have to finally let go of that immaturity that we used as a comfort blanket to protect ourselves within our teenhoods. We could get away with so much simply because we were deemed 'too young to understand', or were 'too angsty' to know how to behave appropriately.

Its the personality crises for many that will pull down the curtain of that anxious depression you may feel by the time you hit 24. What happens if you belong to a certain clique that you've always rolled with and then all of a sudden your friends are getting engaged, giving up bands and getting proper jobs? It can be a pretty brutal time for any young person who hasn't dealt with that way of thinking yet.

Some young people just don't want to lose that youthful naievety or innocence. Lets face it, unless your extremely fortunate, you will at some point have to get used to sorting EVERYTHING out in your life; whether its bills, council tax or just simple shopping.

I guess its just growing up.

For me, it hasn't helped that i went to uni late, i mean to say that uni offers you a simliar comfort blanket that teenhood does; for near enough 3 years your in a sphere where uni work is your life. You can take pleasure in the abundance of your loan, and worry little about what happens with 'real-life'... That is, until you finish and then welcome to the 7th level of Dante's inferno!

Okay, so i'm 25 and i'm working a retail job i don't really like, but it could be worse. Alot worse.

I'm tackling this mid-20's crisis as best i can, admittedly i don't have a great deal to show or offer a glamourous, young lady (i am single by the way...)but i think the key is to just man up and get on with living. Too much thought about the far future will confuse your thinking about the immediate future.

Some folks who are in their mid-20's are lucky enough to know what they want to do, and direct themselves at it from the offset therefore anxiety about their age becomes null and void, I think for the rest of us neurotics paitence is key.

I know, that's rich coming from me, but i'm trying to learn to develop this much needed tool to success. I'm also trying to worry less about my expression lines that are starting to appear, but one step at a time please Zen Master Morg...