I’ve been noticing a growing trend that appears to be fairly widespread and peculiar. The main personal sign of it was when I decided to quit my job and move in with my grandma. As I started paying closer attention to life around me and talking to more friends and family, certain characteristics revolving around an interesting phenomenon continually popped up in different forms. It definitely could just be stemming from my own subjective biases that color my perception, but I’m going to examine it anyway since this is my blog (yay).

Broadly speaking, it seems like we are in a collective period of transition. On the level of my personal life, I can clearly say it is from adolescence to adulthood. In fact, I recently re-watched Tarzan, which was the first movie I remember seeing in theaters and one that I consider amongst my favorites of all time. I was 5 years old when I first saw it, so of course I could only pick up minimal aspects of the movie. Seeing it again made me realize what a great and relevant movie it actually is, regardless of its appeal to children. Everybody’s all caught up in Rapunzel’s hair or frozen by Elsa’s spells, but I still prefer the old school, swinging-from-tree-branches appeal of the original jungle man. I’m even starting to look like him!

Damn, Tarzan makes the transition period seem so much easier. An elephant just throws him in the air, he twirls around a bit, and he goes from being a kid to an adult! For me, the Cleaning out the Closet post basically illustrated the growing pains I experienced during adolescence and finally during the transition to adulthood, culminating in the decisions I am making now.

It’s kind of interesting that our culture doesn’t have clear rituals which symbolize our transition from adolescence into adulthood. Quinceañeras and Debuts are supposed to symbolize that for women, but the original significance might have been diluted a bit in the transition to American society. In ancient civilizations, men would be sent off into the woods alone to demonstrate their survival skills or kill a predator like Tarzan does. Nowadays, graduating college is the closest secular transition we experience and then we are dumped into the real world trying to look for a job.

That is definitely why I am observing a majority of people my age experiencing the same transition in different ways. Most of us are graduated from college, and we are dealing with the new realities and responsibilities that come along with being an adult. Many still live at home with their parents since housing is expensive and a solid chunk of available jobs don’t pay relatively well. It is entirely possible, however, for the definitive transition from adolescence into adulthood to not happen in line with graduation. The process takes a while, and some might be actively avoiding it since it looks intimidating or lame.

Even my family is experiencing transitions. Three of my cousins had babies within the past year, which is self evidently a huge change. For the first time ever, my cousin hosted a family gathering at her house a few weeks ago instead of at my aunt’s, uncle’s, or grandma’s house. Moving in with my grandma has sparked some changes for her, and several other changes have been happening in my extended family on my mom’s side that I won’t get into any further.

This transition seems even more widespread than that though. In my local community, infrastructure and businesses that have been in the area for a long time are gradually starting to change. LA is building a new metro line cutting right through this area, which is either causing or coincidentally in line with the construction of a new hospital and dramatic renovations to a nearby shopping plaza. Gentrification has been on the collective tongue a lot, which is pushing lower income families out of communities that have historically been more affordable. Also, I will just give a shoutout to Elon Musk, whose groundbreaking developments in the space, renewable energy, electric car, and potentially underground tunnel markets has been paramount.

On an even broader scale, the election of Trump has been causing shockwaves in a ton of different sectors. He is pushing against climate change initiatives, which is reflexively sparking the response of scientists and concerned citizens in public marches and the media. His pushes to change healthcare have caused dramatic outcries by millions of people that it would be affecting. The mere fact that he is the most unpresident-like president is spurring changes in how government is being approached in the US. I can only imagine the long term effects of our diminishing credibility on the world stage.  Transitions! Transitions everywhere!

Maybe I’m just being biased, or maybe something is actually happening. Either way, I am extremely excited! I’ve finally developed the confidence that I believe comes along with adulthood to make decisions and move in a certain direction. After all, I am the son of man. Man, who has erected empires and gotten us to the moon and back. Man, who has made tremendous leaps in science and engineering in the pursuit of truth. Yes I know women also made enormous contributions in those pursuits that can’t be discredited, but personally I think Woman has a different and equally (if not more) important role that I’ve touched on briefly before but will definitely continue to elaborate on in future posts. The son of Man must become Man.