Garvey

In Charles C. Mann's article "The Coming Death Shortage", he writes:

"According to Joshua Goldstein, a demographer at Princeton, adolescence will in the future evolve into a period of experimentation and education that will last from the teenage years into the mid-thirties. In a kind of wanderjahr prolonged for decades, young people will try out jobs on a temporary basis, float in and out of their parents' homes, hit the Europass-and-hostel circuit, pick up extra courses and degrees, and live with different people in different places. In the past the transition from youth to adulthood usually followed an orderly sequence: education, entry into the labor force, marriage, and parenthood. For tomorrow's thirtysomethings, suspended in what Goldstein calls "quasi-adulthood," these steps may occur in any order."

For me this appears to correspond with what Anke C. Plagnol and Richard A. Easterlin wrote in their piece "Aspirations, Attainments, and Satisfaction: Life Cycle Differences Between American Women and Men" in the Journal of Happiness Studies:

"The saddest period of the average man's life – his 20s – is also the period when he is most likely to be single."

It seems peculiar that a man's unhappiest years encompass the period of his life where he is most likely to have the freedom to travel and study and move about the world. At the same time, though, this revelation is not all that surprising. No matter what view is available outside of the room where you sleep, in spite of all the photographs and entry visas and memories one can collect through travels and moves, companionship in life seems to be a desire that is hardwired into our sense of happiness and our sense of self (and self-worth).

One could even argue that the affects of a period of profound freedom do not present themselves fully until years later, until some meaning has been derived from the blur of airports and apartments and experiences. Without a clear sense of how we are being changed by our education or wanderlust, it doesn't seem unreasonable to believe that a person in their 20s could more strongly feel the affects of loneliness than appreciate the benefit of learning a second language, of having lived or traveled abroad, and so on.

From what I have gathered from discussions with my parents, friends' parents, professors, and friends, and from articles like those of Mann's and Plagnol's and Easterlin's, is that a person is more likely to develop themselves as individuals in their twenties, and not necessarily to develop much of a "life" as it has become defined today: a 9 -5 job, a significant other, a home in the suburbs, and so on. In the face of the security a life like that offers, the freedom to travel and study can feel superfluous, empty, indulgent, without substance -- like treading water instead of choosing a path.

Plagnol and Easterlin write later in their article:

"But age alters many things, including men's money woes and lackluster love lives.

After 34, men are more likely to be married than women, and the gap only widens with age, mirroring men's growing satisfaction with family life.

Men also become more satisfied with their financial situations over time, as reflected in their increased spending power. The researchers found that men tend to covet big-ticket items that might not be within reach until later in life, such as a car or vacation home."

For most Americans, it seems that the sooner they can mirror the family they grew up in -- or attempt to create the family they never had -- the happier they will be.

What I can't seem to fully ascertain from my conversations or readings, or even from my own life, is what affect taking advantage of the freedom that is available in our 20s will have on individuals and their happiness later in life. We hear so often about the sacrifices that must be made when children enter into the equation, so I can imagine that trying to move beyond feelings of melancholy and loneliness while a twenty-something and taking risks and chances can only be beneficial, especially if a family life appears to be the hopeful existence of a person.

As Dennis Wilson croons in "Time":

"I'm the kind of guy that loves to mess around,
Know a lot of women, but they don't fill my heart with love..."