What is Worse than a Tourist on the Metro: Being in the Real World.

What is Worse than a Tourist on the Metro: Being in the Real World.

So my life has been a bit of a crazy ride. I will not go into the details, but lets just say I’ve had experiences. I went back to school in 2005 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography in 2010. That fall I began my MPA program at GW. Two years later and I am about to graduate again. I have been in school for the last 7 years. It has been comforting to me actually, and although I am excited to be done – it is a little scary. I re-entered education a little frightened and now I am leaving a little more frightened. I have never been the most responsible person, but now I must face a stinging reality: the real world. While in my youth the Real World was about a group of seven strangers living together in some fabulous home in a major cultural center – New York, Miami, Boston – my current apprehension of the the Real World is a lot less glamorous.

So what is worse than a tourist on the metro, who doesn’t know how to move to the correct side of the escalator when they just want to stand there: The Real World. At least with the escalator ride, you know that it is going to end. You can even politely ask them to step aside, and most of them do (unless they are a super deaf teenager that you eventually have to yell at). The end of the Real World is either the second coming or death – either way its uncertain. Not a fan of uncertainty here – probably why being in school was so comforting. The Real World is not fun. It’s a nightmare, an endless voyage to eventual demise. And now I am in it. I have really prolonged my youth for as long as I possibly could have, as long as anyone should. But paying bills, working 9-5, being in debt for the rest of my life – until I get old and feeble – not appealing. But I know it’s all a part of the process and eventually I will not be afraid of being in the Real World. And it probably won’t drive me as crazy as those who don’t understand the meaning to “Walk Left, Stand Right”