The 90's? - My American Life

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/79/stuck-in-the-wrong-decade

This one is tricky, because I haven't ever thought about myself really stuck in a specific time period. I think that you could say that I was stuck in the 90's because I'm still pushing that old 90's techno move, I'm in love with 90's games, but I'm just not entirely stuck in the 90's.There are some elements, because I did miss out on a few things in the 90's and in my development as an adult (leaning how to pay taxes, learning how to write a resume, learning how to do simple things like turning on utilities) but that doesn't mean that I'm stuck, it just means that I missed a few things. There's even the fact that I'm writing about a program that was produced in 1997, but that doesn't really stick me in that decade either, that's just a writing project. I could use any weekly serial from any decade, I just went with this one because it's a MASSIVE serial that typically has different topics each week, and gives me something to write about as often as I can, so that doesn't really stick me in the 90's.

I propose, to the people of the jury, that I do, however, know of a person who is stuck in his childhood. Stuck in a world where his mom comforts him, where he plays video games with no ill effects of the world around him, and that he can do whatever he wants and pays little respect to his own future. To the people talking about people stuck in the past, I have Jared (name has been changed to protect my butt).

The man is a kid.

He is an adult, he is even married with a child, with a child on the way, but still, despite the fact that he is finishing his masters degree, despite the fact that he is supposed to be an adult making adult decisions, he is anything but that. You see, although he's in his late 20's, he goes back and finds comfort in everything that he knew from when he was last comfortable, when he last had to worry about other things in the world, when he was a kid. Although he is the 'man of his house' and tries to show just how much control he is of his world, he retreats back into being a young teenager as often as possible because in that world there is no chaos. In the world of being a young teenager his family has his answers, his gameboy has his entertainment, and life is easy.

When asked about where he wants to live when he finally finishes up his degree, or when he finally has money in the bank, his response is that he wants to live in his childhood home. The same one that he grew up in, the same place that he found comfort in as a young teenager, he wants to return to it in hopes that that comfort can still be found.

His favorite books, his favorite music, his favorite views on everything, and his life in general is based off of the concept that life was as good as it could get when he was a teenager. Somewhere around sixth or seventh grade, life was as good as it would ever get, and so he strives to live back in that moment. He doesn't want to stretch past that, he doesn't want to see past that, and even though he's married, and sort of living on his own (long story about why I say sort of in this sentence) he lives as though he's still thirteen.

If you went back in time and showed his thirteen year old self his current life, every dream would be made. He's married to a stay at home, faithful, wife, he's within a five minute drive of his mom, he has a large TV with his favorite games on it that he can play forever and be the best at, and he has the freedom to do whatever he wants whenever he wants because his job is so flexible (and meaningless) that if he wants to take a day off to do nothing, he can do that. He has food on the table, he has bills being paid for, and he doesn't have to worry because he's on so many government ran subsidies that he doesn't have to pay even a tenth of what life would actually cost.

I am certain that the reason he wants to keep on going to school, to continue this eternal stretch of being a child, is because once school is done he's going to have to be responsible. Instead of being under the comforting wing of a society that is willing to give him just enough to survive without making him homeless, he will be faced with the very rude fact that he suddenly has to pay bills. As soon as he graduates he will have to move out of university housing, start paying for the decade worth of student loans, and get a full time job to support his family.

He's living the dream, and stuck in a decade, but the unfortunate side effect is that soon (because it is going to be very soon for him) that time dilation is going to pop back to reality and he will be faced with not learning how to survive as an adult for missing the past ten years because he was stuck in that time period.